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A Real Nurse Story: Colleen Bellini

Colleen Bellini loves flying so it seemed logical that she would choose a career as a flight attendant. Still, she always had the dream of becoming a nurse. For some people this might be a conflict, but not Colleen-this determined flight attendant is working on her B.S.N.

With today's nursing shortage, opportunities for flexible lifestyles abound, and Colleen has seized the moment. After earning her B.S.N., she will return to her job with US Airways as a transatlantic flight attendant and Italian translator. In between flight assignments, she'll work as a per diem nurse. For Colleen, it's the best of both worlds. "I love flying and can't see myself giving it up," she says. "And so far, nursing really agrees with me." She adds, "I've chosen two really great careers."

To get to this point Colleen traveled down a long road. She's worked for US Airways for 18 years, but during the last 10 she also attended classes part-time to fulfill the liberal arts and sciences portion of her undergraduate degree. When she first began her journey, she met with a counselor to ensure she was taking courses that would meet the entrance requirements for nursing school. When she completed this first academic leg two years ago, she took a leave of absence from the airline and enrolled in nursing school full-time at Florida Atlantic University in Ft. Lauderdale.

"I was scared to death," Colleen admits. "I thought everyone would be smarter than me. But the thought of going to nursing school [turned out to be] much more daunting than the reality."

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Colleen loves nursing school. She enjoys the mixture of older and younger students in her classes, the expertise and dedication of her professors, and the cognitive challenges of the work. Most of all, though, she appreciates the hands-on aspect of clinical rotations.

According to Colleen, rotations are one of the few times nurses get the benefit of the doubt from colleagues, so it's an opportunity to develop proficiency and ask a lot of questions.

"This is a job where you use your head and your heart," says Colleen. "When you are a new nurse you can't do both at once and do them well, so I'm concentrating on the cognitive part."

In addition, because nurses in training don't carry a full patient load or heavy responsibility, they have the unique opportunity to come to know the patient as a person. Colleen enjoys the finding ways to reach patients. It is, she notes, "sort of like having light come through a crack into a dark place."

But her experience in clinical rotations also has taught her that nursing school is not at all reflective of the real world of healthcare. She says, "Nursing school is an amazing thing, but it's not really representative of what you experience. The [healthcare] system is really challenging."

But challenge is nothing new for the woman who once was one of the youngest females with a pilot's license in the state of Michigan, and who has spent years dealing with difficult passengers and emergency situations high in the sky. She believes her experience as a flight attendant has prepared her well for a career in a dynamic environment like an emergency room or ICU. "I know from experience that when you are in emergency situations your training does kick into gear. You learn to speak to people in a certain way."

Will she find it difficult to go back and forth from nursing to flying?

"Actually, I always tell people there are so many parallels between my two careers," says Colleen. "I think traveling and sickness are the two things that bring out the worst in people. You have to go the extra mile to accommodate people." Colleen clearly is capable of doing just that.