Little did Ken O’Brien know what was in store for him when he decided to change careers in 2017. After a 35-year career in integrated circuit manufacturing, development and design with Bell Labs and Fairchild that had taken him to many interesting places, like a six-month assignment living in Japan, he decided to become a nurse.

The impetus behind this change is an interesting story. Ken always told people, “While I have a challenging job and I enjoy it, my most interesting job was as a 20 to 22-year-old college student.” While attending Rutgers University, Ken was working a part time job as a closing shift manager at a local McDonald’s. He realized he needed to find something that had more to do with his future career. With the assistance of an aunt, he landed a part-time job in a hospital’s computer lab running diagnostics and backing up data. There was a shortage of phlebotomists, so he was recruited to work as one.

As Ken says, “In those days they let any 20-year-old with a pulse and a few hours of training draw blood.” He added a couple of hours to his shift and after a few months, he joined the phlebotomy staff. His 12 to 16 hour a week part-time college job turned into 30 plus hours most weeks. It was this memory of a job as a 20 year old that would lead him to apply to the USM accelerated nursing program 35 years later.

Ken was accepted into the accelerated program. He said, “It was a big adjustment to go from expert with years of experience to fall back on being the person in the room who often knew the least.” Ken completed the 16-month accelerated nursing program, passed the RN exam and started his present job at Maine Medical Center in November 2018. Other than the struggle to address staffing issues because of the national nursing shortage things were going along fine. Then COVID hit.