What does it take to become a nurse? Today, as we look at how much more important healthcare professionals have become as we all face the pandemic, it makes you wonder. Their sacrifice and uncompromising dedication is inspiring.

Erin Marlin, R.N., as a child, loved helping people. As a little girl, she would often accompany her dad, a pharmacist, to deliver medication to nursing homes on the weekend. As a volunteer candy striper at a hospital, she was fascinated by everything around her. Studying to become an anesthesiologist, she had a difficult time seeing molecules, only to find she had dyslexia. Instead of giving up, she did a little shift in her plans. Volunteering at a hospital in London and working at the very first Ronald McDonald House for children with cancer, she found her passion. The experience solidified her desire to become a nurse.

Erin worked 2 jobs while going to school-working as an EMT in an emergency room and as a waitress at a local brewery. She studied with friends and rewrote her notes, carrying notecards to study when she could at work. She graduated 3rd in her class.”I truly believe my experience as an EMT was incredibly resourceful and helped me to connect the class content to the clinical setting.” Her pinning ceremony when she graduated was exciting for her. With lights dim and intimate, her instructor of her choice read what Erin had written and her grandparents pinned her – so emotional, so proud.

Erin’s experience as a  EMT, made her know she wanted to be in critical care. Difficult at the time to get a job in critical care without at least 6 months experience, her manager advocated for her to be hired as a new grad into the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. Erin’s heart also had a passion for volunteering. “it is so satisfying – so rewarding – so fulfilling, to know you are doing something for the greater good without expecting anything in return…if I ever won the lottery or became independently wealthy, I would volunteer full time.” She has volunteered on 7 mission trips with ReSurge Intl, traveling to Ecuador, Vietnam, and China. And through BNF, she volunteered in the Dominican Republic.

COVID 19 has asked so much of the healthcare workers and frontline workers. When asked what she feels of these demands put upon them, Erin said:”When I took an oath to become a nurse, I promised myself that I would take care of anyone at any time. That is what nursing is all about… being selfless in order to help and make a difference…each patient is a person, with a family and a story. Take care of them like you would want your family to be taken care of.” 

When asked what it takes to be a nurse, Erin said, “You must have the heart and soul to become a nurse and to become a great nurse, you must have strength and compassion.”

BNF thanks Erin and others like her for your heart and soul, and your strength and compassion. You are an inspiration to all of us.