“Nursing isn’t really about the tasks. It’s about being present with another human being at a moment when most of the world has stepped back.”  SALT LAKE CITY, May 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a time when the nation is experiencing a severe nursing shortage, one registered nurse is marking her 50th year in healthcare, with no plans to retire anytime soon. When <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=ktd4Eriw9cnZv0qMZRh_AT2xt7r3QIHG9eVpe-0t0VNmFVykIBNovhC5flsePqGHtQc-_V44xf2woLQznVbMdArczh54H_vq9ri9oe0ieR88Gz_y5XvZZ_eIQKXjdxj038HwEJesJuMXc08W0aexQJ2uxRLEt_B82KmLjtT6DkKHOJruboogEqfPPbis-S1O" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Bonnie Fecowicz">Bonnie Fecowicz</a>, MSN RN, graduated from a Massachusetts nursing school in the 1970s, she walked into a hospital and was responsible for 72 patients on her first shift. Fifty years later, she is still showing up for nursing — now as vice president of <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=H-6Q6dTieI4ReA71yE5eNKgR-4uyOkghUJsBT1COFhzRouwzPk3Qe2-cJ2uD2h6Ltn3T4FOZjK628tr_4fuz8dc2UVHV20UZ1GnoVVuvhxGas_uMJTW4eyOvOqmRjMLN" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Nightingale Solutions">Nightingale Solutions</a> at <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=H-6Q6dTieI4ReA71yE5eNOfJF_NW3QwLIhwqOA1FaAxHTUH1oOSqq0SszQ63IdOhbZf6tXl4-rqLom1NGgU1vve2TevFiq47h9aevNYlIPfh7KerZ3SkJNpQwZJn8JC9G0kQcVF6JgVV-6KogT4--mbMO0iJit141JcXAHwTUug=" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Nightingale Education Group">Nightingale Education Group</a> and next month, advocating for nurses on Capitol Hill.  As the United States observes <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=uvaX85r_0n40LsMSNIDuMkHS2F-EZzRzz5MUWEWN7YvfvXeAcITGxpX-PnKS6e1vSXNqgvuz9Li830DobYXmJm-H-t6Ycxj_yGlin-i2SXims5PhsazOUfRt-1ewSv-W" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="National Nurses Week">National Nurses Week</a> and Month this May, Fecowicz marks five decades in a profession she says has never felt like work.   “I get as much out of nursing as I give,” Fecowicz said. “I feel rewarded knowing I can make an impact on someone’s life.”  Nursing Through AIDS, 9/11 &amp; COVID  Fecowicz’s career has spanned some of the most consequential moments in modern healthcare — the HIV/AIDS epidemic, 9/11 and COVID-19 — each event, she says, fundamentally reshaped the profession.  “It was HIV/AIDS that changed me most,” Fecowicz said. “What I learned in those rooms, very quickly, was that nursing isn’t really about the tasks. It’s about being present with another human being at a moment when most of the world has stepped back.”  After years of clinical leadership, including chief nursing officer roles at multiple hospitals, Fecowicz joined Nightingale Education Group because she saw an opportunity to address what she calls the profession’s most urgent challenge: the gap between nursing training -and bedside readiness. About 10,000 students are now enrolled at <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=H-6Q6dTieI4ReA71yE5eNDHD4Rn_SazQZEIlyXQwrEv-07gfZzujVkys_BLcKycaHWLG50qu3D0TuUVy3wAA9digJPMPgkhQY8Y5BqqpG9w=" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Nightingale College">Nightingale College</a>.  Learning Better with Technology  “Schools began teaching nurses how to take a test rather than how to practice nursing,” she said. “New nurses arrived on units credentialed but often unready — not because they didn’t work hard, but because they were trained to pass tests rather than how to practice.”  At Nightingale, Fecowicz has championed simulation-based and technology-driven learning that she says more closely mirrors the hands-on training she received in the 1970s — creating safe environments where learners can apply clinical judgment before they ever face a high-stakes situation.  Those simulations, for Nightingale College students who attend classes remotely across the country, are completed using VR technology, a tool that was new to Fecowicz. “I came up in an era when we learned at the bedside because there wasn't anywhere else to learn. So, I'll admit I came to (VR) simulation with some healthy skepticism,” she said. “What changed my mind is seeing well-designed simulation do things I genuinely couldn't do at the bedside — like letting a student make a mistake, recover from it, talk through it and try again, all without harming a patient.”   Next Stop, Washington, D.C.  In June, Fecowicz will travel to Washington, D.C., to advocate directly with legislators on behalf of the nursing profession. “If we use our voices, there is a real power in the four million nurses in the country,” she said.  Despite a 50-year career and a generation of colleagues who have long since retired, Fecowicz says she has no intention of stopping. “I would tell anyone to go into nursing because it means changing the lives of others,” she said, “and that is something you can hold onto forever.”  Nightingale Education Group    Nightingale Education Group contributes to closing health equity gaps by elevating education and employment systems to create a relevantly skilled, readily available nursing workforce that is representative of the communities they serve. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Nightingale Education Group includes several operating divisions: Nightingale College, offering accredited nursing programs at PN licensure, LPN to ASN (limited states), baccalaureate, and master’s levels, as well as Nightingale Innovations, and EvolveU. To learn more, visit <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=wk0wzclHwpVeBUMldgOnozFNWjeQATCTQ0CWpqQhJu5RuEjT3IaPHZA1EjSVIxu_gf_-St_pHwDbg2e1sB4Nng4t6_ZacDhLUzN3pElSvChmvw2PR5SNbqyS31h8NMleFq3L56bauDzVBfR6aspEgA==" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="www.nightingaleeducationgroup.com">www.nightingaleeducationgroup.com</a>. Media Contact Paul Murphy pmurphy@nightingale.edu   <img alt="" src='https://ml.globenewswire.com/media/ZDQ1YTAzZWItMzBiOS00MjliLTg1NTMtYjZhZDg2YTkwYjJmLTEzMTIzMzQtMjAyNi0wNS0xOS1lbg==/tiny/Nightingale-College.png' referrerpolicy='no-referrer-when-downgrade' />

GlobeNewswire Inc.

After Five Decades as a Nurse, Nightingale College Educator Reflects on What Nursing Means During National Nurses Month

Latest news from the world of business and finance – both local and global

MONEY FM 89.3 is Singapore's first and only Business and Personal Finance station, featuring local and international business and financial news.

MONEY FM 89.3

Discover newsletters from our DJs on LinkedIn