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Like many working nurses, Joni Garcia kicked off her career in health care at an early age – sort of. It all started when she was just six years old. Her older brother had come down with a cold, and Garcia was tasked with an important chore in his recovery.

In the 15 years that she has worked in medicine, surgical technologist Bunyaporn “Bonnie” Toronjo has supported countless patients during their most vulnerable moments.

In 2001, Bill Muir was playing in a rock band in Japan, teaching English and martial arts. He had been picked up by video game maker Square Enix to sing “Otherworld,” the opening song on the best-selling Final Fantasy X soundtrack.

In the course of a lifetime, every career path has twists and turns, but to Jackie Patterson, nursing is a field in which “you kind of end up falling into things.”

After nearly 21 years, Pollack’s way of doing things has gained her “an incredible support system” in the workplace that she describes as a second family.

Regaled with tales of nursing by her grandmother, who worked at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, Massachusetts native Sarah Wolf was headed for a career in medicine as early as high school.