Bergsten changes careers after 25 years as loan officer

After 25 years of being a loan officer for banks and mortgage companies, Bruce Bergsten decided to go back to school.

“I knew I didn’t want to be in that industry anymore,” Bergsten, of Wichita said. “It took me a while thinking about it, but then I decided to choose the path of nursing. I wanted to be employable and portable. I wanted to make a living and make a difference. That was my criteria for new career.”

Bergsten first chose to attend Pratt Community College because of the online courses, and the ease of completing his prerequisites and the affordable classes. After the success of completing the prerequisites, Bergsten decided to go into the PCC Nursing Program, since that would be an easier transition.

“I was able to accomplish my goal faster at PCC,” Bergsten said. “A lot of the education I feel is left up to the student to get as much out of it as they can. Because of the amount of information that is dished out in the program, the student has to be mature enough or prepared enough to spend the time to it together.”

Bergsten said that one thing he learned was that change was constant, and students have to be able to adapt and be flexible. When addressing nursing school and working, he would look at in short segments. “I would tell myself I can do anything for one semester, instead of looking at as a two or three year ordeal. Then I would say the same thing the next semester,” he said.

After graduation, he is going to work at a surgical intensive care unit in a Wichita hospital; he has a job waiting for him, where he has been a nurse tech. for the past three years.