While the usual conversation about the national nursing shortage focuses on how to recruit young people, there is another potential pipeline. These are people in their 40s and 50s who are often pursuing second careers. They are also, in many ways, exactly the kind of nurses NYU Langone Health needs.
It’s often assumed that successful people in their careers always knew where they were going, but some of the best nurses never saw it coming. For these four, strong support from across the institution made a huge difference.
Our second career nurses bring a depth of perspective, resilience and purpose that strengthens our entire profession. ”
Debra Albert, DNP, MBA, RN, Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services, NYU Langone Health
When Eddie Rodriguez, MSN, RN, was in his 20s writing traffic tickets to people who ran red lights, he realized there was a gap between who he thought he was and his daily life.
“People looked at me and were disappointed,” he said. “That wasn’t what I was looking to sign up for.”
Rodriguez grew up wanting to work in a museum, but since her father was a police officer, she was drawn to the stability and possibility of helping people from an early age. When her father suffered a heart attack, Rodriguez spent several days in the hospital watching nurses work to keep his father alive. He also saw them sit down with his father after the intervention and explain how his life needed to change. Seeing this version of himself helping people brought Rodriguez’s career into focus.
At his father’s urging, he resigned from the police department. He attended night nursing school while working the night shift on an ambulance. As he watched a former colleague get promoted, he told himself, “The benefits will follow.”
Today, Rodriguez is a psychiatric nurse manager at New York University Langone Hospital in Brooklyn, where the unit’s occupancy rate exceeds 93 percent and serves adults with mood disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, substance use problems, and people who don’t fit neat diagnostic boxes.
In his words, he has his hand in just about every cookie jar: patient care, risk, quality, patient safety, workplace violence training, finance, time management, and more. “I joined a place that was important to me. Being a part of what happens next makes every day fulfilling.”
“Nurses have so much more choice and voice in their care than most people outside the profession realize, and we’re seeing many second-career nurses quickly discover that,” said Stephanie A. Nolan, DNP, MBA, RN, vice president of nursing and patient care services at New York University Langone Hospital in Brooklyn. “Second-career nurses often come into the workforce with a level of emotional intelligence already fully formed. Our nursing training program helps cultivate that, and over time, those nurses become mentors and leaders, ensuring a bedside perspective is present in the room where decisions are made.”
While Rodriguez was building his foundation in nursing at the police academy, Kevin Moore, DNP, RN, was learning from his harshest critics: the kids at his birthday party.
Dr. Moore, who is in his 40s, was coordinating birthday parties at an American Girl store in Manhattan. It wasn’t where he expected to land. He spent his 30s performing. He played Shakespeare at the Free Theater, new york timesplayed every kind of stage the city had to offer. When he and his husband bought a house in Jersey City, the constant journey of being a performer became difficult and Dr. Moore realized for the first time that there was no clear next act.
He says working in an American Girl store is actually a great job. One day, her mother called ahead and told her that her daughter had phenylketonuria (PKU). PKU is a rare metabolic disease that causes the inability to digest protein. Even trace amounts of protein on cooking gloves can send your child to the hospital. Dr. Moore inspected all the ingredients in the kitchen and worked with her staff to set up a dedicated safe area and arrange the perfect tea party for the little girl’s birthday. His experience of breaking down healthcare-related barriers and helping someone feel safe and happy in that space stuck with him.
Dr. Moore continued to think about what would happen next. He meditated and began considering his career options. A lawyer, an accountant, something else? Then one morning, as I was washing my hair, a thought came to me so distinct that it almost became a voice. “Remember when you wanted to be a nurse?”
he had At age 13, he told his mother exactly that. Wanting to protect him, she says no, that’s a woman’s job. He abandoned that idea and built a different life. Now, nearly 30 years later, standing in a bathroom in New Jersey, the idea has come back to life. “I was open,” he said. “Meditation helped me process.”
He had just finished his prerequisites when his mother was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. She died within weeks. During those weeks, Dr. Moore paid close attention to what happened when the nurse stopped and asked, “Can you explain something to me? Is there anything I can do to help you?” And what happened if they didn’t. “My mother proudly told everyone who walked in the room that her son was going to be a nurse.”
After graduating from nursing school, she worked in a busy emergency room in Jersey City and in an advanced surgical unit at another hospital in New York before being scouted by a colleague to join the post-anesthesia unit at NYU Langone. At age 50, he began pursuing a Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree. Currently, she is the System Director for LGBTQ+ Health and Wellness at NYU Langone, where her responsibilities include clinical education, organizational policy, patient navigation, and staff advocacy. And he’s currently building an educational framework he calls Asking Better Questions. This framework aims to teach clinicians how to have conversations that are often avoided in medical settings.
“I really feel like this is what I’m supposed to do. I have to advocate. I have to speak up for those who aren’t there or who don’t have a voice. I absolutely love what I get to do every day. It’s nothing short of a privilege. I don’t think I could do this anywhere else but at NYU Langone.”
While Dr. Moore created a unique role within the system, Candace Larocque, MSN, RN, saw nursing as a way to live the life of her dreams.
LaRock started two hair salons on Long Island, raised a daughter, had five surgeries in seven years, and finally paid off the student loans for her first (unfinished) attempt at college. Then she went back to school.
Fourteen months after graduating from nursing school, Larocque bought a condo.
“It literally made me cry,” she said. “NYU Langone really gave me that.”
She was motivated by her father, who died in 2015 after a long illness that brought her to the ubiquitous emergency room on Long Island. She watched the nurses take care of him and that planted the seed that she wanted to become a nurse one day too.
She earned her first prerequisites for Nassau Community College while running a salon and working part-time as a healthcare IT recruiter while being a single mother of a teenager. She took one class at a time. She was in a car accident on her way to anatomy class, but still showed up.
“There is light at the end of every tunnel,” she said. “What you do now will lead to tomorrow.”
She is currently a senior nurse in the inpatient unit at New York University Langone Hospital on Long Island. She says everything is visible in this unit. Larocque also serves as a preceptor for students and new employee trainees, co-chairs the clinical practice and administration council, and serves on unit-based councils for the hospital’s emergency department.
Her skills transferred in ways she didn’t fully expect. “Building my salon practice has a lot to do with nursing. People talk about their families, their fears, their bodies. They often talk about things they don’t talk about anywhere else, and a lot of that translates into therapeutic listening to patients,” she said. “When I worked at the salon, I trained many people who are still a part of my life today, which is what drove me to put these different experiences together and earn a master’s degree in nursing education.
Of course, her fellow nurses know who to ask to style their hair when they have an after-hours event.
While Larocque was a bedside beauty, Jennifer Rocha, MSN, RN, was traveling the world with such intensity that she was able to hop on an emergency flight and tailor a suit for nursing care.
After graduating from college, Rocha joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Kiribati, a tropical country in the Pacific Ocean that appears as a dot on a map. She spent two years in a shack with no electricity or running water, working as a rural health promoter and providing health education. She left the Pacific and worked for five years at Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Sony teaching business English to Japanese engineers. “The engineers were great people,” she said. The engineer sat across from her, shaking with nervousness, afraid to speak the language he had studied for years. She learned how to walk into any room in any culture and find a way to be helpful.
When her salary as an ESL teacher reached its limit, she chose nursing. Because it was the only qualification that allowed me to go anywhere in the world.
She spent a year completing prerequisites to enter nursing school in the United States from Japan. Later, while backpacking through Thailand, the school informed him that there would be no phone interviews. If she wanted in, she had to come in person. She ran to a travel agent, bought a ticket, found a tailor, had a suit made in 24 hours, flew to the US jet-lagged and overcaffeinated, endured an interview, returned to Asia, continued backpacking, and passed.
She currently serves as a Nursing Professional Development Specialist at New York University Langone Orthopedic Hospital. She is a nurse educator, which is what I wanted to be from day one of orientation. She spent years deliberately accumulating the widest possible clinical experience so that she would be ready when the job began. “I’m in the job I’ve always wanted and the job my journey has prepared me for,” she said.
All of these nurses are energized by their professional axes, but the system and patients equally benefit from their proven talent.
“We prioritize the whole person by providing health and peer support programs and opportunities to participate in research, publish, and pursue fellowships,” Dr. Albert said. “Our nursing vacancy rate is 3.8 percent, less than half the national standard. These results are the product of a culture where nurses feel supported, valued, and empowered to build meaningful and lasting careers.”
For each of these second-career nurses, maintaining the status quo means far less friction. They chose to overcome challenges in a health care system that values their experience as preparation for a meaningful career.
