Two grads from the BSN program at Brookline College are now on the frontlines battling COVID-19 in NYC

As we know, COVID-19 has changed the course of life for all, especially for two Brookline College alumni - Ensign Christopher Schmied and Peter Liets. Both ENS Schmied and Liets graduated in 2019 from the BSN program at Brookline College and are now battling COVID-19 on the frontlines in New York.

Before Liets went to NYC, he was working at a cardiac/surgical progressive care unit at Banner Desert in Arizona.

Through the nursing program at Brookline College, Liets was able to gain all the skills and prepare him for his current duties at a nursing agency helping COVID-19 patients and working on the frontlines.

“I am working for a staffing agency that is bringing nurses to help fight this pandemic [in New York],” Liets says. “I am working with sometimes limited supplies and ensuring that my patients are getting the best care possible. There are a lot of people affected by this right now, so it is important to be adaptive and inventive.”

On the other hand, upon completing the BSN program at Brookline, ENS Schmied went on to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth's (NH) intensive care unit, until he was assigned to work on the USNS Comfort.

It took ENS Schmied almost eight years to become a nurse. But everything he learned at Brookline - from the fundamentals of PPE and infection control, is now being used in a real-life setting.

“These topics that were once necessary for academic success and passing a college course are now being implemented in real-life patient care settings,” he says.

Both frontline workers and best friends agree that the fear of the unknown about this pandemic is stressful, but their wives support and ease their stress- even if they are far away. Another thing they agree on is how the rest of us can help healthcare professionals during this time.

“Be respectful of others and try to remember that everyone is stressed about this; courtesy to others can make a difference. Take care of yourselves so you don’t end up visiting us in the hospital,” they say.

There is still a lot of unknown about this virus, but one thing we know for sure is that the U.S. has amazing nurses and healthcare workers who are putting their patients first and looking out for all of us.

Brookline College is a private college with locations in Phoenix, Tempe, Tucson, Albuquerque and online. It offers programs in business, healthcare, law and nursing.

Brookline College strives to provide students with a high-quality educational experience. Faculty and staff are committed to doing everything they can to create opportunities for students to gain the knowledge and skills required for entry-level employment in over a dozen specialized healthcare programs.

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