Jewish nursing students Lauren
Wolok, left, Cara Duschinsky
and Noah Solomon sharpen their

bedside manner and skills on
a practice dummy at Oakland

Community College's nursing
laboratory.

Photo by Jerry Zolynsky

the nurse," says Beverly Goldsmith, a
Washington, D.C., resident who chairs
the 2,575-member, 35-chapter center.
"It's becoming a respected profession

Community College's director of nurs-

fields, some of them influenced by the

ing and health professions, taught nurs-
ing at Mercy College (now U-D Mercy)
in Detroit in the 1980s. "I had three

fact that nurses are needed even in a

rather than the image of somebody just

Jewish students over 10 years," the

giving bed baths."
Indeed, anecdotal evidence from a
number of sources indicates that Metro

Milford resident says.
The current Oakland Community

Detroit is turning out more Jewish
nurses — even as getting into nursing

College nursing class has a higher
number, she says.
One of them is Lauren Wolok, a first-

school has become highly competitive.
"It's my impression that more Jewish

year student in OCC's nursing program,
who has a degree in psychology from

girls are going into nursing," Luria says.
This includes her daughter Rachel,
who graduated U-M's nursing school in

MSU.
"I had a slight idea (of going into
nursing) when I was at Michigan State,"

2003 and works in the seizure disorder
clinic at HFH Detroit.

the 24-year-old Andover graduate says.
"I am interested in the science and the
nurturing. I'd like to work with kids."

"We do have a lot of Jewish nurses
here," says Val Gokenbach, vice
president and chief nursing officer at

Beaumont, Royal Oak. "We rely on
them for language, for dietary restric-

tions and for the rituals. It helps when
we have people that really understand

these differences."
Dr. Cynthia Roman, Ph.D., Oakland

She was further attracted by the ben-
efits and the hours — "those kinds of

perks."

Adding A Nursing Degree

Greenberg knows a number of Jewish
young people, including Wolok, who
chose nursing after graduating in other

poor economy.
Among them is Cara Duschinsky,
24, a West Bloomfield High School
graduate with a physiology degree

from MSU. She is one of 238 students
accepted out of 645 applicants to the

OCC two-year associate degree in
nursing (ADN) program for fall.
Duschinsky started out in business,
then thought she would be pre-medi-

cine. "But I realized I wanted to do

nursing."
It helped, she says, that "there's
about 15 ways you can become a
nurse. I'm very excited. It's a career in

which you can make a difference."
Melissa Serwer, 24, is another. After

graduating from U-M as a pre-med
student majoring in psychology, she
entered the DePaul University, Chicago,

masters entry to nursing program.
Although she plans to stay in
Chicago after her June graduation, "I'll
come back to Detroit eventually," says

\ '
\ ,

flak

,

Cynthia Roman, Ph.D., director of
nursing and health professions at OCC:
"Nursing has such a wide variety of

options."

Serwer, who grew up in Franklin and
graduated from Groves High School in
Beverly Hills. "I love it here."

CHANGING TIMES on page 46

May

2010

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