“I was drawn here; I knew it was the place for me,” said Nurse Bell chose Wooster recently, and it chose her. But she worked in many different places before her time at Wooster, which was nothing less than riveting.
Born in the Bronx, Nurse Bell always knew she had a passion for medicine. Graduating from Pace University, she got her Bachelor of Science degree and now has a master's from Capella University.
At age 10, she went to a hospital to sing Christmas Carols when she saw a young boy on a stretcher. He asked her to help move his leg because of a quad injury, and after doing so, she realized what she was meant for.
“This is what I want to do,” recalls Bell on her first encounter with a patient. She describes herself as interested and excited by the hospital machines and people walking in and out of the room. It was the place for her.
Naturally, she wanted to work there as her first job, but the hospital didn’t take anyone with less than two years of experience, as it dealt with intensive pediatrics. Volunteering there as much as possible was as close as Bell could get, so that’s what she did, all throughout high school and college. After graduation, she found other jobs, but still submitted her resume to the hospital she had first fallen in love with. On the night of her twenty-first birthday, she got a call. The job was hers.
Nurse Bell worked in the pediatric unit for ten years. After she moved to Westchester Hospital, she took a job in the pediatric emergency room. Something many may not know about Nurse Bell is her love for adrenaline; she has been skydiving thirty-one times. This made her the perfect candidate to be a flight nurse.
“Jerry is retiring from flight, and I know the perfect person for the job,” Bell recalls her co-worker saying to her one day. She thought it was crazy, but perfect for her. Being a flight nurse entails getting ready to jump from helicopters to save people in need, and Nurse Bell flew all over the state of NY.
“One day, we got to Buffalo in 20 minutes,” Nurse Bell recalled. For reference, Buffalo is roughly a 6-hour drive from Westchester Medical Center, where the helicopter took off from.
Being a flight nurse, however, wasn’t always easy, as is the case with any medical profession. So, when Nurse Bell left Weschester Medical, she got a job that replicated her love for adrenaline, but in a different way, with the New York Yankees. Nurse Bell’s interview to be a nurse to the Yankees was anything but conventional.
“I had to run up and down the stadium with a full pack of medical gear on my back,” said Nurse Bell. “When I got back, all I heard was you got the job.” She had done it, and while working with the Yankees, she saw it all. There were two positions that
Bell and her partner switched on and off: dugout nurse and stand nurse. The dugout nurse got to deal with injured players, and the stand nurse dealt with civilians. Her three years with the Yankees were memorable, dealing with fans, meeting players, and being with the team when they won the American League Championship in 2011.
However, the Yankees' lifestyle didn’t support being a mom, which matters most to Nurse Bell, who has two kids. Thus, she took more pediatric jobs in hospitals and, luckily, found Wooster.
“This place is so special,” said Bell, who felt the draw towards Wooster the moment she set foot on campus. In Nurse Bell’s short time at Wooster, many adore her, and students can be found chatting with her across campus.
While Wooster may not be Yankee Stadium or a helicopter, it is surely exciting every day, which Nurse Bell’s arrival has added to.
Charlotte '27
Advanced Journalism Student
