Like the 1974 cult classic bestseller, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Mary-Beth Quinn, RN, is reflecting on her life. When the Islip, NY, resident turned 60 last December she asked, "Is it too late to do what I want to do? When you reach another decade things go through your mind."

Quinn decided she'd had a "good healthy life" and it was time for her to give back to society using her nursing skills. She'd done volunteer work before but mostly with the historical society around her coastal village and "maybe a couple of health fairs."

Last month, Quinn took a break from her work as a full-time flight attendant for Northwest Airlines and as a per diem infusion nurse for Catholic Home Care, Carle Place, NY, to volunteer for a week as a nurse at Victory Junction Gang Camp in North Carolina. The camp for terminally and chronically ill children is part of the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp family founded by actor Paul Newman.

Physical & Emotional Demands

Quinn rode her 2008 Honda VTX 1,300 CC Retro Cruiser motorcycle, "Black Beauty," from Long Island to Randleman, NC.

"I've always been a daring person," the diminutive 5-foot-3-inch nurse said, "and I seem to physically test myself. It was a challenge to go that long a distance on a motorcycle, and I'm happy I was able to do it physically and mentally."

Quinn's charges at the camp faced physical and emotional challenges, too, living with the disability of spina bifida or "split spine." Some children can walk, Quinn said, "and it looks like there's absolutely nothing wrong with them. Others walk with a limp. Some walk with braces. But the majority are confined to wheelchairs."

Emboldened by a camp designed just for them, the children engaged in archery, rope climbing, horseback riding, bowling and swimming.

"To see them shed their braces, wheelchairs and straps, crawl into the water and be free is so touching," Quinn said. "Everything came down to trust. That was the essence of the experience: trusting the counselors and the nurses."

Just as the children participated in such adventures as "zipping from one side of camp to the other along a big clothesline," Quinn said she has invited adventure into her life.

The Real Adventure

After obtaining her nursing degree from St. Mary's School of Nursing in Brooklyn, NY, in 1968 and doing a brief stint in med/surg, she was drawn to the pace and "crazy mode" of the ED. Besides home care infusion, her 40-year career would see school nursing and legal nurse consulting added to her CV, but "ED was the real adventure for me," Quinn said.

Marriage to an Air Force pilot introduced more excitement: three children and a great deal of travel - from Oklahoma, Alaska and Texas (twice), to the Philippines and England.

Thirteen moves in 15 years would break the back of the marriage, however, "because it wasn't going to end, and I wanted to get settled when my oldest was in high school. I've lived in some wonderful places, but after a while you have to settle down. You can't keep moving children around."

Tucson, AZ, was the last stop. "I ended up working in a trauma center," Quinn said, "and it was the trauma center for the whole Southwest of the U.S. That was the best job I ever had because we got the worst cases you can imagine. They would come in, and you just had to go into this mode. It amazed me - one did respiratory, one did circulatory, you just didn't even have to be told.

"I always told people the survival of that patient depended on who was on that day - I know that sounds sad and hopefully today it's different, but it really made a difference. If you had a good team, boy, you had a good chance."

Taking Flight

Today, Quinn finds balance and excitement flying 10-12 days a month and working once or twice a week as a per diem infusion RN.

"The first flight attendants had to be registered nurses back in the '40s and '50s," Quinn said. She has had a "couple of emergencies" as a flight attendant but, today, primarily uses her powers of observation and assessment skills as a nurse to "just be aware" of people.

"If passengers are upset and have rushed to catch a flight, I make sure I hydrate them right away," Quinn said. "Other flight attendants don't do that, but I don't want a problem later on at 30,000 feet. Passengers come from all situations. Not everyone is on vacation. Maybe they're going to a funeral or maybe a child got ill and they had to rush on this flight. I try to think out of the box as far as passengers, unless it's a safety issue. That's a whole different thing. We tolerate nothing anymore."

Quinn considers home care infusion a specialty, saying, "You have to be proficient in central lines, hooking people up to chemo and taking them off it, giving infusions, drawing blood."