Time for a Change
Second-Career Nurses a Growing Trend

He used to make sure the mechanical equipment used by a renowned restaurant chain was always up and running. She had been a social worker who worked with cancer patients.

Today, Jorge Nunez and Jane Sidwell are both registered nurses at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. They are part of a trend seen more and more in the United States – people changing careers instead of staying in one line of work for a lifetime.

For Nunez, who has been a coronary care nurse since January 2000, the challenge of a career in medicine made sense because there are so many career avenues offering stability. He took classes at Texas Woman’s University while he did engineering work for both the restaurant chain and later Texas Children’s Hospital. After graduating in December 1999, he came to St. Luke’s.

“Actually I look forward to getting my master’s and becoming a certified registered nurse of anesthesia, where I can use my mechanical talents even more,” he says.

Nunez particularly likes the fact that nurses have so many work schedule choices.

“When my wife and I have children, that will be very important to me,” he says.

Sidwell, since 1995 a valuable member of St. Luke’s palliative care services, had worked her way up to become vice president of human resources for a family service center in Houston. Yet this woman who enjoyed delivering compassionate care to people wasn’t receiving the human interaction she desired. She realized that earlier in her career as a social worker, she had often enjoyed serving the needs of cancer patients.

“What I had found frustrating then is that I couldn’t help the cancer patients with their pain and suffering,” Sidwell says of the early days of her 20-year career in social work. “I realized that as a nurse I could care for both physical and emotional needs in end-of-life care.”

After her children had gone to college, Sidwell embarked on her nursing education. Once she graduated, she took a position with the Hospice at the Texas Medical Center, but soon realized that she wanted to work with people earlier in the disease process. In palliative care at St. Luke’s, she works as part of a team to manage symptoms of advancing disease, including end-of-life care.

“I feel it is such an honor to work with patients at the end of their lives,” says Sidwell. “People are so grateful when you can help eliminate pain and suffering while helping them keep their dignity.”

Sometimes she finds herself explaining to loved ones of a patient what happens at the end of life. Frequently, Sidwell says, just before someone dies, the individual can be seen reaching out and up.

“I can explain to people that I’ve seen it before, that the person is reaching out to someone who has gone before him. Family members are so relieved when I tell them that. They’ll say, ‘That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t sure.’ When I can help educate like that, help instill peace of mind, it is so rewarding.”

It doesn’t surprise either Nunez or Sidwell that people leave other careers for nursing.

“Nursing allows you to diversify in so many areas,” says Nunez. “If you want to work with people or computers, you can find what you want.”

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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