She was destined for career in care

Each month "Transitions" profiles an individual who has made significant changes in his or her work life and highlights the techniques used to make the changes.

Terry Murphy

Born and raised: Charlestown
Age: 59
Education: Secretarial certificate, Boston Business School, 1965; Bachelor of science in nursing, University of Massachusetts Boston, 2005
Was: Legal secretary, Ropes & Gray
Is: Registered nurse, Cardiac Telemetry Unit, Mount Auburn Hospital

In many ways, Terry Murphy always seemed destined to be a nurse.

Nursing, she felt, fit her personality. "I'm a people person. I liked the idea of being able to help, to make the world a better place."

But she was not to achieve her dream for decades. In 1965, after attending a Catholic all-girls high school, options were few, Murphy recalled: "You could become a secretary, a nurse, or a nun.

"I believe I've always wanted to be a nurse," she said. "But when I graduated from high school, there was not a lot of money around."

She was one of five children.

So Murphy attended Boston Business School, where an older sister had gone, and earned a secretarial certificate after two years.

In those days, she said, 15 years before the personal computer was introduced to the workplace, core secretarial skills were typing and shorthand, along with filing and telephone work.

Murphy's early career included stints as a secretary at a brokerage house, small law firms, and the US Department of Justice in Boston.

She did apply to nursing school in 1975 and was admitted, but decided not to go. "I couldn't give up my paycheck," she said.

In 1981, Murphy was hired at the blue chip downtown law firm Ropes & Gray. She worked there for the next 10 years.

"I liked it, and I was good at it," she said. "I liked working with people."

She was assigned to the firm's health practice area, where she worked on right-to-life and other issues.

"It opened my eyes to doing what's best for the patient," Murphy said. "The nurse is the patient's advocate."

Murphy always remained attuned to healthcare issues, whether on the job or at home.

She lived with her aging mother and felt "it would be really helpful to have the skills to take care of her as she got older."

She had also witnessed a terrifying car accident. A man was hit by a car after he and his son got off a bus that Murphy had also been on.

"I was frustrated, just standing over this man. I didn't know what to do to help a person in pain," she said.

Later, in her only-out-of-state job, Murphy worked as a medical secretary for an orthopedic surgeon at the University of North Carolina, transcribing his clinic notes and preparing his speeches and papers for publication.

She also worked at New England Medical Center before returning to Ropes & Gray in 1995.

"I still needed the steady paycheck," Murphy recalled.

This time around, however, she discovered that the firm would reimburse her for education. "I'd always wanted to get a degree," Murphy said. "I just felt it would make me more well rounded, and I'd learn new things, feel more accomplished."

At age 47, Murphy started taking courses at the downtown Boston satellite campus of Northeastern University. She started out taking English literature, psychology, and math classes. Later she enrolled in biology and chemistry at Bunker Hill Community College.

With a degree emerging as a distinct possibility, Murphy transferred to the University of Massachusetts in Boston to take anatomy and physiology courses. Then, in 2001, she started her clinicals -- pediatrics, maternity, and other hands-on rounds at the hospitals. She was now committed to a nursing career, but at her age it was tough.

"I was older than nearly all the other students and did not have much common ground with them," she recalled. "I felt isolated."

But she was also determined, working toward her long-held goal.

Some of her friends thought she was crazy to leave her secretarial career, "a secure job, with a good salary and a good retirement."

After 10 years of evening classes and shifting her work schedule, Murphy was finally awarded her nursing degree in 2005.

She took the state licensing exams and became board-certified as a registered nurse the same year.

She completed a second 10-year stint with Ropes & Gray and then signed on with Mount Auburn Hospital in late 2005. She has worked since that time in the telemetry unit, monitoring cardiac patients.

"A nurse can be there to hold someone's hand, to take care of them," she said.

"It feels like a new beginning," Murphy said. "It has reinvigorated me at this stage of my life. It's keeping me on my toes, and I'm constantly learning new things."

But the job is physically demanding. She works 12-hour shifts, though enjoys the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift because she is not a morning person. Her paycheck surpasses what she made after four decades of secretarial work.

And while her three brothers and her sister are now retired, Murphy is just embarking on a new phase in her life.

"I've probably got about 20 good years left," she said. "Then I'll be in the same boat as my patients."

If you have a career transition story you would be willing to share, send e-mail to transitions@bostonworks.com. Please include your name, phone number, and a brief description of your career change.