Newly divorced, Christine Bonaventure knew she had to act fast to find a career that would support her and her three young children.

She previously worked as a science educator in Florida and even developed a side gig using science experiments to entertain at parties. But she got tired of running the same experiments over and over and wasn't interested in returning to teaching.

"I didn't want to take the joy out of a fun activity for kids because I was angry or bored with my job," she said.

Bonaventure considered other options, but when she found out she had already completed most of the prerequisites for Wake Tech's Associate Degree Nursing program, she "went for it." Although she had never considered a career in healthcare, she saw the two-year nursing program as a quick path to a stable, well-paid job.

"Nursing was never on the plate for me growing up," she said. "I wasn't the little girl who put Band-Aids on her Barbie."

She leaned into the mid-life career switch and leaned on her instructors. They not only encouraged her and gave her the confidence to keep moving forward whenever she struggled, she says, they also rallied around her family. They let her bring her son to class if no childcare was available, and they even worked together to buy Christmas presents for her children when she didn't have enough money.

"I loved my teachers. They were just wonderful," she said. "My heart really is with Wake Tech."

Anne Jones-Sutton, dean of the Martha Mann Smith School of Nursing, says faculty members support their students every day in many ways.

"The faculty naturally want to help when they see students struggling academically or in the clinical setting," Jones-Sutton said. "Often times, it is the external issues that pose the biggest challenge. Sometimes students just need someone they trust to listen to what their challenges are and to provide support, encouragement and explore available resources with them.

"As I tell students in orientation, 'It takes a village to get through nursing school,'" she added.

The Wake Tech Foundation was part of Bonaventure's village, awarding her two scholarships that she says were critical to her balancing her coursework, family life and three part-time jobs.

"They were a literal lifeline," she said of the scholarships. "They particularly came in handy helping to pay for my books and freeing up enough money to buy the required scrubs."

After earning her degree, Bonaventure worked in various departments at Duke Raleigh Hospital, from cardiac care to the emergency room to orthopedics. Later, she cared for inmates at two state prisons and patients at a state psychiatric hospital.

As with her teaching career, however, she became disillusioned with nursing, saying red tape and bureaucracy too often got in the way of patient care. She says she was looking for a way to use her nursing license that would give her more control over care when she "stumbled across" the concept of concierge nursing – providing personalized care to private clients.

After doing a lot of research into concierge nursing and running a business, she created her own company, At Home Concierge Nurse, in 2024. She began by providing in-home post-operative care, but as patients asked more questions about various health issues, she shifted her focus to serving as an advocate and case manager. Now, she reviews the medical records of clients in about a half-dozen states, helping them understand diagnoses, preparing them for appointments and procedures, guiding them on questions to ask and coordinating care among their various doctors, including scheduling appointments.

Bonaventure says relieving some of the stress faced by adults caring for both aging parents and children – the so-called "sandwich generation" – has become a primary driver for her services.

"People just have so much going on," she said. "I can take some things off their plate by making sure Mom or Dad have their medications sorted out or understand what their physician is telling them. They don't have to worry about that when they attend that soccer game or dance recital or even just take time for themselves."

She enjoys concierge nursing so much that she formed a consulting service, Nursing Freedom, to advise other nurses on how to set up their own businesses.

"I'm an advocate of just trying things out," she said. "You never know what will work."