Second acts

Lorraine Withers was always interested in medicine, but when she got to West Point in 1981, her focus was simply surviving the heavy course load and the rigors of cadet-dom. “It’s not your normal college experience,” says Withers. “It’s the military 24/7, 12 months a year for four years. You have to go to every single class, no skipping; every meal; hours of sports each afternoon; regular parades and formations. You’re held accountable by your peers and you’re constantly challenged to be your best. It was rough, but I grew a lot at West Point and carried it all with me.”

After graduating with a general engineering degree, she fulfilled her five-year commitment to the Army at Fort Bragg, N.C., as an airborne platoon leader of 40 to 60 soldiers. “I learned how to manage people,” says Withers, adding with a laugh, “And once you’ve jumped out of an airplane, you can do anything.”

Withers and her husband, whom she met at West Point (their daughter is now a junior there; their son says he’s not interested…), went to work as engineers for Procter & Gamble. It was not a good fit for her. “I didn’t like the us-against management mentality—and I didn’t like working with machines.” So when her husband was transferred, Withers took a couple of years off to spend time with her young kids, then eventually followed her heart to nursing school.

Withers has been a pulmonary and critical care nurse for 11 years—longer than her time spent in the Army and at Procter & Gamble combined. (She splits her time among several facilities in Albany, Ga.) “I love the human element of nursing—being at the bedside of my patients and interacting with them. I like the clinical side as well, the physiology and pathology of the human body. There’s always a story unfolding: how the disease is progressing, the way the different specialists approach the problem, watching and learning how the treatments work.

“I’m excited to go to work, and I love what I do. Every day I say a prayer that I will do the right thing for my patients.”

And finally: A television sitcom writer switches careers to work as a nurse in an allergy-immunology clinic. “No TV show can compare to nursing. It’s the best reality show on earth.”