This Was My Calling

University of Mary alumna steps up to serve during the pandemic

Brooke Evans, ’18, always planned to be a nurse. “I followed in my mom’s footsteps,” she said. “She’s a nurse, and so growing up I always wanted to be one.” Evans sees it as a calling–as a nurse, she is meant to help people. After attending the University of Mary as an undergraduate, Brooke returned to Mary for her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree. Ordinarily, she is a nurse practitioner in the Orthopedic Trauma Unit at Montana Orthopedics in Butte, Montana. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the states, she heard a new calling: to go serve on the frontlines in New York City for six weeks. It was a Thursday afternoon when she got the call – she had 24 hours to decide if she wanted to go, and then 24 hours to pack up her life and get to New York City. “I had so many emotions running through me: scared, excited, anxious, nervous, and willing,” she said. Her mother and husband were supportive but worried. She has two little boys she was leaving behind. But she knew it was something she had to do. “For me, I knew I had to go to NYC. I had an overwhelming gut feeling that this was my calling; this is why I went into healthcare.” Evans decided to go to New York. She was placed in the Coney Island (CI) Hospital Emergency Department in Brooklyn, NY– literally thrown into the frontlines in the Emergency Department (ED) of a huge metropolitan hospital. Ninety-five percent of patients in the ED were COVID-19 patients, and all were very sick because many would wait to come in over fear of the virus. Many other healthcare workers at the hospital were also temporary, due to many of CI’s doctors and nurses becoming infected with COVID-19 themselves. While Evans was there, seven CI staff members lost their life due to COVID-19, and many more were out sick for weeks at a time. But Evans’ time in New York was not all about devastation. It was also about the strength of the human spirit in the face of difficulties. “It was amazing to see a group of strangers come from all over the United States to band together during a time of uncertainty. The passion, heart, and never– give-up attitude that I saw was something I will never forget,” she said. “We shared many tears and laughs together. The bond that we all formed was something amazing.” Evans credits her University of Mary education and her amazing instructors for her preparedness to serve. “Especially during grad school, all of our instructors were amazing and so helpful and led by example. They taught me how to look at the big picture, to dig in, and to do what you have to do. The graduate nursing program set me up to make it through that situation. “The University of Mary set me up for success for sure. It was an amazing program, and I left feeling confident not only going into my first job but going out to work the frontlines in a pandemic.” Evans said her experience in New York had a huge impact on her personally and professionally. “I think that it was something I was called to do. Hopefully I impacted a lot of people and helped them when I was out there. It changed my outlook on a lot of things in life.” Some people have called Evans a hero, but she doesn’t agree. “If you go into the medical field, you go for a reason, and that’s to help people,” she said. “I would go back in a heartbeat.”

Evans in her personal protective equipment at work at Coney Island Hospital.