Nursing degree helps 60-year-old fulfill dream
By: Minx McCloud
Flo Foley always wanted to complete her education, but she took a couple of detours along the way.
However, a special program combined with support from her family — as well as her own will to excel — led the 60-year-old Belle Mead resident to fulfill her dream recently by earning a master’s degree in nursing from Felician College in Lodi.
“I have no problem with people knowing my age,” she said, cheerfully. “As a matter of fact, I hope to be a source of encouragement to other women who may be wondering whether or not they should go back to school.”
During the five years — three semesters a year — she attended Felician College, Mrs. Foley was inducted into Sigma Theta Tau, the national nursing honor society. She is studying for her certification exam, which will qualify her to become a family nurse practitioner.
Nurse practitioners do more than direct patient care, she pointed out. In a position that falls between registered nurse and physician, they serve as regular healthcare providers for children and adults during times of both health and illness.
Mrs. Foley’s quest for education was sidetracked twice, but she resolutely pursued her goal in spite of the interruptions.
Born in Northern Ireland, she dropped out of high school when she was 16. Her 50-year-old mother was pregnant with her eighth child and it was necessary for young Flo to help care for her seven siblings.
Later, Mrs. Foley moved to England, where she received her training and worked as a registered nurse. At that time, a high school degree was not required in England to enter that field.
When she relocated to America in 1966, she took and passed the high school equivalency exam. Then she moved on to pre-college courses to enter New York University, where she pursued a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
Then Paul Foley, a widower, entered her life and they fell in love. Mrs. Foley quit college to help raise his four children, as well as their fifth child born in 1980.
“I made the decision to put off my education for a while,” she said, “But even back when I quit school in Ireland, I knew that someday I would go back.”
In addition to her homemaking and child rearing, Mrs. Foley worked for several medical facilities in Central Jersey, including Somerset Medical Center, Carrier Institute, and, most recently, as a home care nurse with The Medical Center at Princeton.
She found great satisfaction in working at Carrier, where she gained experience in psychiatric nursing, and was disappointed when she was laid off due to changes in the healthcare system.
“I had planned to stay there until retirement,” she said. “Instead, I was asking myself, once again, what I wanted to do when I ‘grew up’,” she said, smiling ruefully. “It was then that I heard about the program at Felician and decided to take on this tremendous academic load.”
What she found at Felician College was a bridge program in which nurses could complete their undergraduate work and continue on with their master’s studies immediately.
“I remember calling Paul up, very excited, saying, ‘Oh, I’d love to do that!’” she said. “He said, ‘Well, why don’t you do it?’ At first, I hesitated, but he really knew where my passion was and he supported me completely.”
Thus Mrs. Foley began her long-deferred quest for completion of her education.
At first, she was apprehensive because of her age.
“In my very first class, there were 40 students and I was the ‘great-grandmother’,” she said. “The professor asked us when we had taken basic anatomy and physiology. My last class had been in 1959, over 40 years ago. Everyone’s heads shot around, but the instructor said, ‘Don’t worry, Flo, anatomy and physiology have not changed.’”
At times, the hardest part was her commute — an hour each way — but what she found at Felician was worth the trip.
“The faculty members gave us a lot of support,” Mrs. Foley said. “There was a friendly and hospitable atmosphere. The benefits far outweighed the burden of traveling.”
Learning the computer posed a challenge, but she took a three-credit introduction course. With the assistance of her computer-literate daughter and a stepson who is a programmer — she referred to them as her “emergency help buttons” — she learned what she needed to know.
The Medical Center at Princeton, where she worked at the time, had switched to a computer database for its medical records and that helped with her “practice sessions,” she said.
“Graduation was absolutely super,” she said. “When I went up to receive my diploma, I put my hands up in the air. I was so thrilled.”
“I had to put so many things on hold — the house, the garden,” she said. “Paul did all the cooking, cleaning and shopping. He had dishpan hands. For awhile it consumed my whole life. Putting friendships on hold was the hardest. But it was worth it, because — wow! I did it!”
She is looking forward to her new life as a family nurse practitioner.
“It’s very, very exciting, and a bit scary too,” she said. “But I’m aware of what I don’t know and I know how to do research. The more education you have, the less you know, because it opens so many more doors.”
As if her immediate goals were not enough to keep her busy, she has additional plans.
After she gets her certification, she plans to learn Spanish, and hopes eventually to work with Doctors Without Borders, an international organization of medical personnel who donate time and skills to developing or troubled countries.
“I’ve always been focused, and I know what I want,” she said. “Some people call me feisty, but I prefer the word disciplined. You have to maintain a certain structure in your life to obtain your goals. It may have taken me 60 years to get it, but nevertheless, I’ve gotten it.”