Bunmi Bello, RN, joined Saratoga Hospital in 2020, immediately after graduating from nursing school. It was the middle of the pandemic, and Bunmi admits to being at least a bit worried. “I wondered, ‘What am I getting myself into?’” she says. “But I love it. My co-workers are amazing. They’re like family.”

Bunmi works nights on the medical-surgical floor known as D-1. Most of her patients are recovering from surgery or have cardiac or kidney-related conditions.  

It’s not the career Bunmi expected when she majored in accounting as a young college student. Those plans changed nearly a decade ago when she gave birth to her first child via an emergency C-section.

“My daughter weighed only 3 pounds and was in the NICU for two months,” Bunmi recalls. “I was so scared, but the nurses were so kind and helpful. I started thinking, ‘Why not? Why not do this for someone else?’”

Bunmi began her nursing education while she and her family lived in Maryland. When they moved to New York in 2017, she continued her studies in Albany. The family also welcomed a second daughter and bought a house in Saratoga County.

These days, Bunmi’s early concerns about meeting the challenges of COVID-19 have been replaced by the confidence that often comes with experience. “Looking back, I see how far we’ve come,” she says. “The pandemic made me stronger and even more able to give back to my community.”