Coming from a family without great financial resources, Delilah Flexas needed to work hard to find opportunities, even before she was in high school. Back then, she knew she wanted a career in medicine when she grew up.
And she’d have to fight for it.
Thanks to her determination, the love of her family and a place where she could thrive as a student and nurse, she became the first in her family to graduate from college and earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice, Family Nurse Practitioner degree from Rush University’s College of Nursing.
A family’s love and the first step
From an early age, Flexas wanted to work in health care.
“I think it really stemmed from having a great pediatrician as a child,” she says. “And my parents exposed me to health care and encouraged me to go into the medical field.”
Flexas saw how hard her parents had to work to provide for her and her two younger brothers as her grandparents provided after-school care. She was especially inspired by her father, who was born in Cuba under the Castro regime. His family fled to the United States looking for a better life. It drove her to pursue education.
“In eighth grade, I started to volunteer at an OB-GYN clinic just to get some exposure," she says. “And I really liked working with the physician there.”
‘By sophomore year, I already knew ...’
That drive continued in high school where she saw a flyer for a program that would let her learn more about areas of the hospital and offered chances for summer internships.
During the summers, she’d work in different areas, become the youngest person to work at the hospital and find a job as a part-time pharmacy technician until she graduated nursing school. But when she shadowed nurses in the NICU, she felt she found her calling.
“I realized that nurses spend the time with the patients — with the families,” Flexas says. “They build relationships. And that was more what I wanted."
Flexas was determined to pursue her education and career. She applied to the schools she wanted to attend, even though her school counselor said they were too rigorous. The acceptance letters rolled in.
Four years later, Flexas earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
‘Why was I not fulfilled?’
After graduating, Flexas began working at a health care institution, but she didn’t find it as fulfilling as she expected. That’s when she applied to the NICU at Rush.
“I kept hearing from nurses that Rush was a place where they were very well respected,” she says. “Their voices mattered. They were heard. That's what really drew me to apply. And having worked here, I fully agree.”
But Flexas wanted more. And it wasn’t until a traumatic car accident with her brother that Flexas would find out what it was.
While they were driving through a snowstorm, they found themselves blocked by a truck and hit a snow mound, which sent the car into the guardrail.
"We were lucky to be alive. But in the months after, I kept struggling,” Flexas says. “I discovered very early in life what I wanted, and once I knew, I gave a huge amount of effort and time to reach my goals. I'd accomplished everything on my checklist. So why was I not fulfilled?”
After a lot of self-reflection, Flexas realized that she wanted to see the world. She spent several months traveling, starting in Iceland, then Europe, Australia and Southeast Asia.
"During that time, I learned so much about different cultures,” she says. “I met amazing people and was in situations that I’d never have otherwise been in. I learned about myself. And once I came back, I had a new perspective on how small we are in the grand scheme of things. It made me love my profession even more. It made me want to help others more and understand people.”
Flexas started to pursue a Master of Science in Nursing to become a family nurse practitioner. But she realized that an MSN wouldn’t allow her to be the best provider she could be.
"I realized I just need to go all the way and get my doctoral degree. And that's when I started looking into Rush because I had worked there.”
Becoming the doctor she was meant to be
Rush University’s College of Nursing offered the opportunities Flexas was looking for. There, she deepened her love of nursing and her drive to provide patients with personal care.
“The Family Nurse Practitioner Doctor of Nursing Practice program is rigorous and challenging, ranked very highly in the nation. I am proud to be a part of it,” she says. “They care about their students and want you to succeed and be the very best provider you can be.”
Her favorite memories from the program were of simulation and clinical conference days when she and other students met on campus for clinical scenarios that mimicked real life patient care situations. They allowed her to build relationships with peers and professors while developing teamwork, communication and critical thinking skills.
“I learned that nurse practitioners are in a unique position at the forefront of the future of health care,” she says. “I also learned a strong sense of ethical principles and professional responsibility. The lessons added to the 14-year foundation of bedside nursing I already had and helped strengthen my commitment to a meaningful career as a family nurse practitioner.”
But her time at the university wouldn’t be easy. Flexas continued to work as a nurse, through the stress of the pandemic while helping her family care for her grandmother who had just been diagnosed with cancer. She had her own health scare when she started having neurological symptoms. Sadly, her grandmother passed away during that time.
But Flexas persevered through all of it, keeping her dreams and goals always in sight.
“The director of the program, Dr. Bridget O’Brien, was a huge support through it all,” she says. “With the encouragement of those closest to me and the reminder that my dream of becoming Dr. Flexas was also my grandmother’s dream, I had to keep pushing forward for both of us, even if it was only one day at a time.”
As a member of the Rush University class of 2024, Flexas walked down the aisle during commencement and accepted her Doctor of Nursing Practice, Family Nurse Practitioner degree.
Her future, the future of health care
Now that Flexas has achieved all her childhood dreams, she has new ones, and they’re bigger than ever.
She plans to apply to Rush again, this time as a family nurse practitioner in a primary care clinic.
"With my degree I can provide a wide range of services, including assessing patients, making diagnoses, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests and initiating and managing treatments, including prescribing medications,” she says. “I can work independently or collaboratively with other professionals and have the opportunity to work in different health care settings such as hospitals, clinics and private practices, as well as non-health care settings, like startups and med spas. My degree opens my future career to endless possibilities that I very much look forward to.”
Flexas also wants to give young people, especially underrepresented Latino and Black teens, the same chance to pursue their health care goals. She’d like to create a program like the one that helped her in high school.
For now, she’s planning to continue her love of learning about other people, places and cultures and will travel to Africa this summer.
With her determination, love of learning about people and dedication to her health care profession, there’s little doubt that Flexas will continue to reach any goal she sets.
If you’re interested in a career in health care, learn more about Rush University. And if you’d like to know more about the program Flexas graduated from, read about Rush’s Family Nurse Practitioner Doctor of Nursing Practice program.
