COLLEGE FOCUS
Giving and Receiving Care continued from page 3
B
eing on the receiving end of caring concern also motivated Karen Britten (’98) to pursue a career in health care. When she was going through the anxiety of breast cancer treatment in the early 1990s, it was the warmth and care giving of her oncology nurse that inspired Britten, an insurance broker, to change careers and become a nurse herself. For the past 15 years, she has worked at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital as a critical care nurse. Assigned to the telemetry unit, she cares for patients with cardiac and respiratory issues. Britten’s own “vulnerable” period occurred at age 35. Pregnant only 14 weeks, with a baby girl at home, the Highland Park resident was horrified to learn she had breast cancer. Fortunately, the cancer turned out to be stage two, and Britten was able to delay the mastectomy and chemotherapy until after her son was born. Nevertheless, the anxiety would continue during the next several months.
“It was a very frightening time in my life,” she recalled. “You lie in your hospital bed, and you try not to think about it, but you can’t turn your mind off. I equated cancer with death, and I had a husband, an eight-month-old daughter and a newborn son at home.”
Pregnant with her son, the Highland Park resident was horrified to learn she had breast cancer. Following many surgeries and difficult rounds of chemotherapy, Britten began to consider a career change. Holding an M.B.A. from Loyola University Chicago, she had been an insurance broker for four years, but
had always been attracted to medicine. “Becoming a nurse would allow me to pay forward the care that I received,” she explained. Once enrolled in CLC’s nursing program, Britten appreciated the expertise and encouragement of instructors like Carmella Mikol (“great conversations about dealing with the what ifs of patient care”) and Cathleen Brzezinski (“asked her to pin my nursing badge at graduation”) and the experience she received her clinical training at sites including Great Lakes Naval Training Station and Lake Forest Hospital. Significantly, the close friendships she made with other nursing students have continued. “Many nurses at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital went to CLC, so there’s a camaraderie among us.”
Cancer survivor Karen Britten (’98), a nurse at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, enjoys paying forward the care she received. ALUMNEWS | 7