12/28/09 2:42 PMVoices - A Late Start in the Healing Arts: Finding a Calling After Work Is Done - NYTimes.comPage 1 of 3http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/business/retirement/13NOVA.html
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VOICES
By LAURA NOVAKPublished: April 13, 2004
MANY people spend their retirement taking care of someone else,and that person has usually been a spouse. But as retirement becomes less of life's last lap and more of a post-middle-agetransition, a growing number of people are deciding in their later years to care for others by becoming nurses. Accelerated nursingprograms havenearly tripled since 1990, and have made it easierand quicker to earn a nursing degree. Here are the observations of fi ve people who ha ve chosen thispath.
MICHAEL GREENEMichael Greene, 55,has been working as an adult nursepractitioner
for two years. He shares a private practice with a doctor in theCastro District of San Francisco. When he was 51, Mr. Greenemoved across the country to enroll at the Yale University School of Nursing. All I had ever wanted to do was take care of people. But growing up in the 50's, girls became nurses and boys became doctors. So I set my sights on medical school. But I got wait-listed. I got a doctoral fellowship in biology at Georgetown.Three years later, I was just kind of burned out by the process, so I got a job as a bank teller. That temporary job turned into a career in mortgage banking and finance.Then, in 1996, I left. I had enough money in the bank. I met a partner, a man who hadleft a career in real estate and law to become a nurse. That was a real eye opener for me.There was this possibility that maybe I could do what I always wanted to do.In the 1980's, H.I.V. and AIDS came along, and I lost friends and a partner. I wanted to be part of taking care of these people. I volunteered at AIDS organizations but that wasn't enough. I realized that becoming a nurse practitioner would be perfect for me without having to go to medical school.
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12/28/09 2:42 PMVoices - A Late Start in the Healing Arts: Finding a Calling After Work Is Done - NYTimes.comPage 2 of 3http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/business/retirement/13NOVA.html
I spent three years at Yale. It was difficult. I wasn't sure I was going to succeed. Ourfamily broke up. We were bicoastal for three years. But we're stronger for it now.I didn't appreciate how intense and demanding this work would be. You are involved with the most intimate details of people's lives. People look to you for a level of expertiseand responsibility that I think I'm much more able to deliver with maturity andexperience.JEAN KRUEGER Jean Krueger, 62, is a registered nurse in the public health department of SiskiyouCounty in Northern California. She earned her bachelor's degree in nursing fromCalifornia State University at Chico just before her 61st birthday. She said she considersherself "two-thirds old" and hopes to spend the last third of her life doing what she hasalways wanted to do. When I graduated from high school in 1960, I entered a nursing program and stayed init for about three months, but I quit because I got married. I raised a family and went to work as a bookkeeper and an auditor for 22 years. In 1997 I retired. My husband died in1989.I decided to work as a travel agent. But that was when the airlines decided to cutcommissions, and so I thought I'd go to college. I was 57 years old. I went to Chico State,about 160 miles from my home.There's lots of variety. Today I worked in an immunization clinic. Yesterday I testedpreschoolers for hearing and vision. My primary desk job is doing case management forCalifornia Children's Services.I came from a position of having everything dictated to me and I was told what to do. SoI think my self-confidence was not nurtured. I'm still growing. I'm still learning. Lifeexperiences make it easier in nursing and so does having raised children and losing aspouse.MAE LIUMae Liu, 53, is a first-year student at Samuel Merritt College in Oakland, Calif. By age55, she expects to be licensed as a registered nurse with a master's degree in casemanagement. She is single with no children. She previously worked as an administratorat a health maintenance organization until she was laid off in 1997. She consideredherself retired. Then a confluence of events propelled her into what she calls "a new way to retire." Around the time I stopped working, I began volunteering at Children's Hospital inOakland. I moved to the neonatal intensive care unit. I loved being around the babies.
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