3 Cheers: How One Woman Juggles Two Jobs -- Nurse, Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A local nurse got a plum spot on the Philadelphia Eagles' cheerleading squad. Gabriela Bren, a South Jersey native, is a nurse on the orthopedic trauma floor at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.
"It is my passion, and I absolutely love being here every day," Bren said.
And when she's not in her scrubs, Bren is a cheerleader for the Eagles.
"It's definitely probably the coolest experience I've ever had in my entire life, the amount of things we get to do and see," she said.
Growing up, Bren loved to dance, from jazz to hip-hop, you name it. It wasn't until her father fell ill with cancer that she found a passion for her current career.
"I would go with him to his treatments and stuff, and seeing how the nurses impacted him, how much he raved about how helpful they were through his whole process, I kinda decided I want to do that for somebody," Bren said.
This was Bren's rookie cheerleading season, beating over 200 dancers for a spot on the 36-member NFL cheerleading team. She says her nursing schedule makes balancing the roles hard.
"We always work 12-hour shifts," she said, "so I usually get out of here at 7 or 8 p.m., so whether I have Eagles practice after that or an appearance, people don't really believe that I do both at the same time!"
But when they find out, said nurse manager Esther Wood, "they get excited, and they are like, 'Oh my God!' Yeah, it's a good thing. It's a good feeling, and she's so successful at it."
We're giving 3 Cheers to Bren, for doing it all, a nurse for her patients and cheerleader for Philly, a superhero in scrubs.