U.S. Army reservist and one-time aspiring Catholic priest Anthony Olenski, RN, of Milford, Connecticut, is paving a new path for himself in the field of behavioral health and psychiatry.
“My life has been like a GPS where you see direction laid out, and you’re taking a turn, but the GPS recalculates,” said Olenski, who also worked in construction, landscaping, as a medical assistant and a personal trainer before becoming a nurse through UMass Chan Medical School’s Graduate Entry Pathway program. The Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing program provides a pathway to RN licensure and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree or PhD for applicants who possess undergraduate degrees in fields other than nursing.
A DNP student in the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Track, Olenski is a champion of telehealth, which he says can make mental health care more accessible.
“As long as patients have Wi-Fi and an electronic device, they don’t have to worry about having a mode of transportation,” said Olenski.
Olenski’s call to medical service began while he was studying to become a priest at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and leading outreach efforts in Philadelphia. After graduating from seminary with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, he enlisted in the U.S. Army as an infantry medic, serving four years in Thailand and various U.S. locations.
“We were the only medical unit for a 400-mile radius and I was responsible for physiological, mental and behavioral health,” Olenski said. “That’s where I began to implement everything I learned from ministry, from my experiences working with populations who were incarcerated, mentally and physically disabled, unhoused and in need on the streets. I fell in love with that aspect of medicine, and caring for people in general.”
Becoming a father recently affirmed his choice to work with children and adolescent patients.
“My little munchkin will one day go through many of the same struggles my patients have had, whether that’s being treated unfairly, struggling in a social dynamic or finding his identity in the world,” Olenski said of his son, Leo. “That brings it very close to home. My role as a nurse has that much more value.”
