By FELICIAN UNIVERSITYPublishedJune 21, 2021 at 8:41 AMLast UpdatedJune 21, 2021 at 8:41 AM
RUTHERFORD, NJ – Christina Dunham’s previous participation in one of Felician University’s Campus Ministry’s Midnight Runs into Newark to bring supplies to the homeless helped prepare her for her work delivering COVID-19 vaccines to senior citizens and other homebound individuals in Lakewood and Newark, she said.
“It was a humbling experience to see people that are less fortunate than you.”
Dunham, a recent graduate of Felician University’s Nursing program, said that many of those she is serving now are scared to leave their house, and a lot physically can’t.
While Dunham has accepted an offer to work as an emergency room nurse at Hackensack Meridian JFK University Medical Center in Edison, she plans to continue delivering COVID-19 vaccines to the homebound, even if it requires a police escort.
Admittedly a little nervous, but mostly excited, to start her new emergency room job, Dunham said she loves being a nurse and believes she will feel right at home having worked as an emergency medical technician with the Lincroft First Aid Squad where she played a role in helping to save a man’s life by giving him CPR after he suffered a heart attack in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in Middletown.
Dunham credits her professors at Felician University with preparing her for nursing by giving her a good grounding in how to treat patients with compassion, something that can’t always be front and center in an emergency situation.
Felician University taught her more than just how to be a nurse, she said. “They taught me how to give back.”
Founded in 1942 by the Felician Sisters, Felician University is one of the few Franciscan universities in the country, and the only one in New Jersey.
