ENAF Scholarship Recipient Driven to Help Others

“Going back to school for my bachelor’s degree is the most empowering thing I’ve ever done,” stated ENA Foundation Scholarship recipient Sophia Veinoglou, RN, CEN. Veinoglou is enrolled in an online RN-to-BS program through the University of Massachusetts, which allows her to maintain her fulltime staff nurse position in the emergency department (ED) at Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

“I got my associate’s degree and I thought that was really good,” she said. “I had no idea before I started this program how much more there was to nursing, such as research opportunities. Anybody who is considering going back to school really should do it, because it gives you such a broader outlook on nursing. I never would have known how much more was out there if someone had not given me this chance.”

Veinoglou has been taking advantage of opportunities throughout her nursing career with positive results. After coming to America from England in 1989 to do six months of volunteer work, “I never left,” she shared. She went to nursing school at Berkshire Community College and got a position as a medical/surgical nurse at Fairview Hospital after graduation. In 1997, she decided to try travel nursing; it was while at Columbia Medical Center Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona, that Veinoglou fell in love with emergency nursing.

“They didn’t need me on the medical/surgical floor, so they had me do some on-the-job training in the ER. I did two rotations and that’s how I started in ER nursing,” she recalled. “I had gotten a little comfortable doing medical/surgical, and there was absolutely nothing comfortable about ER nursing. You just never know what’s going to walk through the door. It was challenging and there were so many things to learn.”

Veinoglou returned to Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington, but this time as an emergency nurse. She joined ENA and became very active in the Berkshire Chapter, where she is the 2006 president.

Veinoglou plans to have her bachelor’s degree by May 2006 and is considering continuing her education. A new master’s program launched by the University of Massachusetts holds special appeal for her. “Most people who go for their master’s are taken away from the bedside and go into management,” she explained. “This is a degree to keep nurses at the bedside. If I decide to go back, that is what I want to do, because I don’t see myself going into management.”

Veinoglou is very excited about a unique opportunity offered through her current degree program: traveling to Ghana, Africa, to work in a clinic established by the university. She will spend two weeks in March working as a nurse and doing community teaching. “I’m going to learn a lot, because in the ER we unfortunately don’t have the time to do a lot of teaching,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to travel as a nurse, and this is an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.”

Veinoglou is grateful for the financial assistance provided by the 2005 ENAF Undergraduate Scholarship. “This sounds kind of corny, but it really made me more connected with ENA,” she said. “We put a lot of work into making our Chapter thrive, and this was like a thank you. It’s another bonus that makes you work even harder for ENA.”