From flight nurse aspirations to health care innovation: Meet Nick Dobrzelecki, BSN '97

We can thank flight nurses to Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Class of '97 alumnus Nick Dobrzelecki's interest in nursing.

"I worked as an EMT volunteer and knew I wanted to get into health care. I started off as a pre-med major but have always been intrigued by flight nurses, so I switched to nursing with no idea of what I was getting myself into," Dobrzelecki says.

More than 30 years since making that decision, Dobrzelecki has not yet flown as a nurse, but has impacted the health care industry on many fronts.

An ROTC student at UC, Dobrzelecki was stationed in Bosnia two years after graduation. His deployment brought the opportunity of leading medical training for his NATO division and gave him international exposure to people and hospitals. Twenty years later, Dobrzelecki's path led to finding solutions to the international crises he witnessed back then.

"After leaving the Army, I worked as a home healthcare nurse. Becoming an entrepreneur wasn't a goal, but I foresaw an opportunity to develop a large-scale remote coding service when regulatory changes took place in the industry," Dobrzelecki says. "The holistic perspective nurses employ when treating patients is what can make them successful in health care innovation so, although I had no business background, the critical thinking I learned in nursing school helped me grow the company and become a key player in the home healthcare market."

Dobrzelecki has recently joined the college's Alumni Council and the Innovation Certificate program advisory committee.

"I'm excited to support our students' evolution of critical thinking to innovation thinking and to get nurses confident so they can push forward and influence change. Having an innovation mindset in whatever environment they work will foster small changes that lead to bigger changes," he says.

Related Stories