Bill Onieal, MHA, BSN, RN, CEN was caught off guard when he was chosen as the subject of a Nursing profile. Not surprising considering most nurses by nature are modest and self-effacing. Like many others who pursue nursing careers, he was surrounded by role models. His mother and seven of his aunts were nurses. Nurse Onieal can vividly recall losing his grandmother to cancer when he was seven, and telling his Mother, “Mom, I want to grow up and cure cancer.” It was a self-defining moment. “I knew I wanted to be in health care, it’s where I belong. It’s where my heart is. If I wasn’t a nurse, I honestly couldn’t tell you what I would be doing.”

Bill Onieal

Onieal started as a lifeguard, and worked as an EMT, before becoming a nurse. Onieal had been accepted to a number of schools but it was a tour of Felician that sealed the deal for him. “I met several of the faculty members of the nursing department. And I just knew right then and there – that was the school that I wanted to go to.” Nurse Onieal got his BSN degree at Felician College, then earned a Master’s of Science in Healthcare Administration at Felician University, and is currently studying for a Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree at Old Dominion University. When he speaks of Felician it is with both pride and deep gratitude for his Felician nursing education, especially the Felician faculty. He particularly remembers a pivotal conversation with Dr. Margaret Daingerfield in his second year at Felician, when she asked, “Do you want to be an EMT, or do you want to be a nurse?” Nurse Onieal says the conversation was a turning point, “I was trying to manage being a nurse and working as an EMT. And I really wasn’t doing a very good job at balancing.” Onieal says “going through nursing school was not easy. But when you come out on the other side, you are a part of a family, a worldwide family that the minute you say you’re are a nurse, automatically, you are family.”

Onieal currently commutes 2 hours door to door to get to his job at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, New York where he is a nurse manager. His work is administrative but he says in the time of COVID-19 it’s all hands on deck.

Nurse Onieal doesn’t particularly like it when people call nursing a profession, instead calling it a lifestyle because, “in a lot of ways you dedicate your life to it. Onieal’s nursing is fully informed by the Felician values that guide Felician University saying when it comes to patient care, “the goal is to have a closer interaction with your patients. I’m treating the patient as a whole and that includes their family and getting their family involved.” In what might come as a surprise to some, this dedicated nurse also holds a license in sky diving, “something that started on a whim,” holds 2 Guinness World Records for performance competition and also teaches the sport.

Onieal wants people to know you don’t have to be a nurse to make a difference during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and wants to “say thank you to everyone who is making our jobs and health care that much easier by protecting themselves, protecting their family and protecting those around them.”
And we would like to say thank you right back to you, Nurse William Onieal.

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About Felician University

Felician University engages over 2,300 undergraduate, graduate, and adult students through programs in Arts & Sciences, Business, Nursing, and Education. Universal Franciscan values of social justice, compassion, and respect for human dignity serve as an inclusive foundation for transforming the lives of tomorrow’s leaders. Felician University’s education is ranked 3rd best return on investment for private colleges in New Jersey 2018 by the PayScale.com College ROI Report and is ranked #1 safest college campus in the state by niche.com.