The following post is written by Mary Hall, RN, BSN, prevention nurse specialist, Health and Preventive Services, Optima Health. Mary shares how she got interested in nursing as a career. 

I wanted to help more

(L-R) Mary Hall is pictured with her family on a recent vacation over the holidays.

I, like many others, chose nursing as a second career. I majored in business and worked in sales and marketing. I LOVE working with people but found the nature of sales to be in conflict with my true passion which is advocating for others and hands on care and compassion. I tried to make my career in business work by subsidizing it with volunteer work at the hospital. I found that I was limited in the direct patient care that I wanted. I decided to go back to school and earn a bachelor’s degree in Nursing.

Getting good grades together

Mary Hall is pictured with her family when she had just enrolled in nursing school.

I was in my 30′s, married, with two school-aged children. It was so rewarding in two ways; one, that I could be a good role model for my children and posted my report cards beside theirs on the fridge, and two, that I was so interested in what I was learning as by this time in my life I had first hand knowledge of the diseases and injuries I was studying related to personal experiences. To top it off I think another interesting fact about why I chose to be a nurse is that when I turned 40, I sought to find my birth mother and guess what…she was a nurse!