Baylor nurse’s compassion inspires another to pay it forward

Hope Nail-Bergin was living a good life — married with kids, a nice career as a stockbroker — when she got the news: she had cancer. Furthermore, she was pregnant, and the available treatments could kill either her or her baby. Struggling with her options, a hospital nurse one day asked Hope how she was feeling.

“I burst into tears,” she says. “[The nurse] sat and held my hand, and said, “It’s okay. Whatever you choose, it’s okay.” No one had given me that time. No one had given me that grace. But in that moment, she allowed me to make some decisions for myself, and the first one was, I needed to give this a chance. … What that nurse did for me was pretty much save my life, and she gave me my God back.

“That nurse was a Baylor nurse.”

Inspired by that nurse’s care, Hope later sought her out to learn more about her background, her training and her career. “I decided that was what I wanted to do — I wanted to be a nurse; I wanted what she had. … I knew I had more in me than what I was doing, so I took a leap of faith and went back to school.”

Hope graduated from Baylor’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing in 2014, and today, she’s a cardiac nurse at Baylor Scott & White’s Heart Hospital in Plano. You can hear her full story in the video above.

Sic ’em, Hope and Baylor nursing!

[One additional note on Hope’s story… In the video, she explains how, having left her stockbroker job to pursue this new life, it took scholarships to allow her to finish her nursing education. On Feb. 28, Baylor nursing will host its annual scholarship fundraiser, the Going for the Gold Gala, featuring Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, BA ’10, as keynote speaker; football Hall of Famer Mike Singletary, BBA ’83, as special guest; and Fox Sports Radio national sports anchor Deb Carson, BBA ’88, as emcee. If you are so inclined, take a moment and consider how you might help support students like Hope.]