CEDAR LAKE – Skilled health care and law enforcement professionals are needed to replace those who left their careers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic or subsequently retired, and the Health and Safety Ministry at Holy Name of Jesus is reaching out to help guide and support those heading for and beginning those careers.
“We’ve kicked around the idea since early this year of reaching out to health career students and others in first responder training to support them, because it can be tough to get through school – academically, financially and emotionally – especially when you are also working and raising a family, in some cases,” said Tony Brunello, who chairs the Health and Safety Ministry and has worked as a registered nurse since 1996.
Brunello, a Grant Park, Ill. resident who works at Franciscan Health Olympia Fields, already has experience as a mentor, having met for about a year with a fellow parishioner, Krystal, who is starting her last semester of nursing school at the University of Saint Francis in Crown Point. “We talk once in a while, and I offer her encouragement,” Brunello said.
“It’s one thing to have your family supporting you, which is great, but unless you’ve been in the trenches – getting three hours of sleep a night, eating a diet that isn’t great, with your nose always stuck in a book – you don’t know what it is like,” Brunello explained. “I can talk about what it is like, offer some tips about how to study, and assure her that she will be okay, she will get through it, because I did and so have a lot of other students.”
Cindy Varenkamp, director of Music and Liturgy at Holy Name, noted that the Health and Safety Ministry “is part of our Peace and Social Justice Commission. It’s all about charitable outreach and helping our neighbors. We have a lot of caring people who want to support the mental health of our parishioners as well as their physical health.”
Lauren Ryan, who retired in January after working 43 years as a registered nurse, is heading the new mentoring program, and hopes to start with high school students exploring careers. “I hope to reach out to local high school counselors and see what kinds of courses they offer that can benefit students looking to become nurses, lab technicians and other health care professionals, as well as paramedics, firefighters and law enforcement officers.”
Ryan is encouraging young people to attend a First Responder Demo Day from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, hosted by the MAAC Foundation at its First Responder Training Campus at 4203 Montdale Park Drive in Valparaiso.
“It’s a free and family-friendly event that will offer first responder and K9 demonstrations, Touch a Truck and Helicopter opportunities and live music and food,” said Ryan. “Those interested in a career as any kind of first responder can ask questions and at least get an idea of what different careers involve.”
Ryan, a former nursing instructor at Indiana University Northwest and neonatal clinical educator as well as a nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, now works part-time at an urgent care center. “I have a lot of resources and plan to reach out to local colleges and universities to compile a packet for students interested in health careers,” said Ryan, who is also looking forward to collaborating with other ministry members.
“I’m hoping to set up a dedicated phone line that people can call for career planning information or to get matched with a mentor,” she added. “I am still mentoring a few of my former students who are now working as nurses. I encourage them to journal, which I find very helpful in processing situations you encounter with patients and families.
Brunello said the more common ground a mentor has, the more they can help their student work through difficult classes, clinicals or hospital situations. “For instance, pharmacology class can be overwhelming, learning all the drugs available and new ones being added, and how they affect you, but as I told Krystal, just get through this week, prepare for the test next week, and then go on to the next week,” he said. “It’s okay to take a (study) break once in a while too, because you need to sleep.
“Sometimes you get so frustrated you want to just throw up your hands, but a mentor will listen to you spill your guts and can understand what you are going through,” Brunello added.
“It would be great to match up a firefighter with a high school student who’s interested in firefighting, too, because there’s more to it than just jumping on a truck and squirting water on a building,” he said. “Getting people into a career field and helping them for the first year or two on the job is important, because you can help them survive some tough times if you’ve been through it.
“Believe in yourself, because I believe in you,” Brunello tells his mentee Krystal. “Isn’t that what we are supposed to do? Reach out and help others.”
For more information on the Holy Name mentoring program or to volunteer, contact Ryan at 365-0591.
Caption: Registered nurse Tony Brunello (left), who chairs the Health and Safety Ministry at Holy Name of Jesus in Cedar Lake, speks to Carol and Ron Zientara after a recent Sunday morning Mass. Carol is a retired nurse and Brunello is hoping to convince her to join the ministry's new first responder mentroring program. (Provided photo)