Derrick Tobin: humanitarian then non-profit executive graduates from nursing school. How this Nova Scotian took a mid-career gamble and won.

By Trish Richards|The Registrar

Propped up against his headboard gazing into the screen of the laptop unevenly rested on his legs, Derrick Tobin was once again working in bed at 3 a.m., when his wife, Ashley, awoke and asked him how he was doing.

“I feel so stressed out. I can’t sleep. I’m just not happy. I feel like things have changed,” Tobin said. She replied, “Well, you can stop, and you can do something different.”

To Tobin, it seemed like almost a lifetime ago that he was an inspired, energetic English teacher, educating students abroad in Thailand and Mexico for two years, before teaching in British Columbia and Nova Scotia classrooms for nearly a decade.

Empowered by his wife’s support and reassurance, Tobin went back to school to become a registered nurse, the lifelong dream career he’d been discouraged from pursuing after high school because of his gender.

A 2021 graduate of Dalhousie University's School of Nursing.

After teaching, pursuing a career in administration was a natural transition for Tobin. At the height of his 10-year administration career, he was 45 years old and had already run two different private career colleges as executive director.

Re-evaluating Priorities

“I felt as though the higher I moved up in administration, the less connected I was with the students, which was really important to me,” he explains. “In the end, I felt like my mental health was suffering a bit, and I didn’t feel fulfilled.”

Empowered by his wife’s support and reassurance, Tobin was accepted into nursing school at Dalhousie University in Halifax and achieved the lifelong dream career he’d been discouraged from pursuing after high school because of his gender.

“Being a husband and a father with a son, leaving what objectively would have been a successful career to go back to university at my age was very scary and very hard,” he explains. “In my class, I was one of only four males and one of the oldest students. I had a lot of pressure on myself to succeed.”

Drawing Parallels

Tobin graduated in 2021 at the age of 48, and now provides care to men tally ill offenders in an undisclosed ward where the courts have ordered them to undergo mental-health evaluations.

Tobin says he hopes the excitement of this new career will last forever

“Staying regulated ensures that we’re up to speed with the highest professional standards, and I think it’s a critical part of our profession.”

“Obviously, we work with a vulnerable population, which I think is what draws me most to it,” he says. “I feel like we do something important, and we serve a population that doesn’t necessarily always get a fair shake.”

When Tobin decided to pursue nursing, he never thought he’d end up working where he did, but after taking part in a clinical placement there, he found it fascinating.

“I see a lot of parallels between nursing and teaching, where you give a lot of yourself, and you’re trying to improve the people around you,” he explains. “I would say the greatest parallel is that it’s a frontline discipline, where you connect on a meaningful level with people, and your goal is to help them, to help them realize their potential, and to help them grow as human beings.”

Now a registrant of the Nova Scotia College of Nursing, Tobin reflects on the importance of protecting the public. “As a teacher, and especially as a nurse, we have the potential to do great harm if we don’t do things right,” he explains. “Staying regulated ensures that we’re up to speed with the highest professional standards, and I think it’s a critical part of our profession.”

Taking Stock

Upon reflection of his professional life to this point, much has changed from the days of working from his makeshift desk in bed into the wee hours of the morning. Of course, his new career has introduced a different set of challenges, like working 12-hour night shifts and dealing with often unpredictable clients and circumstances. Concerns of COVID-19, for example, also linger daily. However, Tobin feels he made the right decision to leave his management role to serve in a frontline capacity.

Team Tobin – An unconditionally supportive family made all the difference

“I’m very proud to be a male nurse, and I think that any population that serves the public in the way that we do has to reflect the public they’re serving,” he says. “Seeing people of different genders, religions and races in nursing really contributes to our field, and it improves the service we deliver to the public. I’m proud of that as well.”