Mark Cobb Nursing (R.N.) A.S. Degree Florida Community College, Class of 2001

A Passion for the Healing Arts

Mark Cobb
Florida Community College, Class of 2001

Mark Cobb grew up with a keen interest in science. But when it came time for a career choice, the Key West native admitted to himself that math was just not his thing. No problem. He found a way to turn his love of science into a profession in the healing arts — with the help of Florida Community College.

As Mark tells it, “I was kind of floundering around trying to figure out what I wanted to do for a job when a girlfriend of mine saw me reading medical books and working with computers all the time. She was always bothering me about going to med school or studying nursing. I knew I did not want to be doctor, but the nursing just kept coming back to me. I thought about it long and hard and decided I would give it a try. I had spoken with some friends about nursing schools, and they said FCCJ had a good RN program.”

Mark enjoyed success in his studies at the College, which helped him land a great job soon after completing them. “I went right to work for Shands hospital,” he said. “I worked on the neuro unit, taking care of stroke victims, patients with autoimmune disorders and seizure patients. I worked for Shands two years and then went to work for Beaches Baptist Hospital on the telemetry unit, which mainly deals with heart-related problems. I have been there for five years, and I love it.”

Mark owes much of his success to the teachers at FCCJ. “There are two teachers in particular that made FCCJ fun and exciting for me, Professor Robert Pollard for humanities and Professor Paula Thompson for microbiology. They are what I thought teachers should be. They were there to help us learn. They were enthusiastic about their jobs and often went on tangents about what we were learning. I could tell they enjoyed their jobs, which made it better for me to learn.”

Mark has additional goals and interests related to nursing. “My pie-in-the-sky goal would be to work as a nurse for NASA, going into the new mission-to-Mars program! But I also often think about possibly going into telenursing. This telephone medical-advice specialty means holding telephone conversations with patients to provide a telephonic response to their questions about medical care or treatment. I would still have hands-on, part-time nursing responsibilities directly with patients and do telenursing part time as well.”

Regardless of what the future holds for Mark Cobb, it’s a sure bet a lot of patients will be glad he decided on a nursing career.