After 25 years, she left consulting to become a nurse. Then COVID-19 hit

CHICAGO -- It was when Kristen Shikany was a patient herself that she decided to be a nurse.

With breast cancer, facing a double mastectomy in 2017, she remembers the comfort nurses provided as they wheeled her into surgery. She was worried about the outcome, losing her breasts, reconstruction.

“It wasn’t until I had breast cancer, and I had spent time with nurses and realized what an impact it had on me personally,” she said. “It seemed like it could be a meaningful career.”

Years later, as a nurse treating COVID patients during the pandemic, she has tried