Alumni: Mike Brennen, ER Nurse

Mike Brennan was a philosophy major at Middlebury and is now an Emergency Room Nurse at Holy Family Medical Center. This job is a lot more than you see on TV, as Mike explains...

Mike, what did you study at Middlebury and what have you done since you left?
I studied philosophy. Then I had to get a job, so I went to nursing school. A master's degree in hospital admin followed, as I thought that the hospitals needed better management. They did, and do, but it is draining work. So I am taking a break doing ER staff nursing, the best job in the world.

What did you learn at Middlebury that impacted your professional experience the most?
The ability to reason, speak convincingly and write.

If you were to offer a few words of wisdom to a Middlebury student aspiring to be an ER Nurse, what would they be?
Consider a Master's in nursing from Pace University or Yale: they both permit non-nurse bachelors to take achieve a masters and sit for the licensure exam. The profession needs you, the patients need you, the pay is okay and will be better, and the emotional rewards are wonderful.