{"id":26679,"date":"2020-04-02T20:14:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T00:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom2\/2020\/04\/03\/health-program-is-as-natural-as-breathing-for-amesbury-woman\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T09:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:48:19","slug":"health-program-is-as-natural-as-breathing-for-amesbury-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/necc.edu\/newsroom\/2020\/04\/02\/health-program-is-as-natural-as-breathing-for-amesbury-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Career Change: From Retail Management to Health Field"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"photo<\/a>

Jennifer Osgood works as a student respiratory therapist.<\/p><\/div>\n

After 15 years working in retail, most recently as a store manager, Amesbury resident Jennifer Osgood was ready for a change.<\/p>\n

While Osgood knew she wanted a career that was more purposeful, the now 35-year-old, wasn\u2019t sure what she wanted. After a conversation with her best friend, who is an ICU nurse, and shadowing at a local hospital, she found what she was looking for in the respiratory therapy department.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter shadowing a respiratory therapist and attending the information session at NECC, I fell in love with it,\u201d Osgood said. \u201cIt was the patient interaction\u2026I had an aha moment. This is nothing I ever thought I would do. If you had told me years ago I would be studying to be a respiratory therapist in my 30s, I would have said you were crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year into the two-year program, Osgood was already working 20 hours a week at Lowell General Hospital under her student license, caring for many patients with COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Even after a stressful semester dealing with patients felled by the virus, Jennifer said she “absolutely loves” her new career.<\/p>\n

After receiving her associate degree in May of 2020, she was hired as a full-time respiratory therapist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.<\/p>\n

She said health care facilities are seeing and treating COVID-19 at all different \u201clevels of disease\u201d.<\/p>\n

The pandemic does not have Osgood rethinking her career choice. If anything, she said, it furthers her commitment to respiratory care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a totally new ballgame for everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cIt makes me anxious to get into it so I can really help out.\u201d<\/p>\n

For additional information on the respiratory care program visit the NECC program page<\/a> on our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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