In January 2015, Kiva Fulea (kee-VUH FEW-lee-ah), a former engineering student from Romania, was beginning her nursing education at a community college in the metro Detroit area.
“One day in anatomy class, the professor said, ‘Today is the day you're going to see a cadaver,’” she recalled. “I wasn’t prepared and didn’t think I could do that. So, the minute I walked into that room, I knew: I’m either going to faint or know this was meant to be.”
To her surprise, she didn’t faint. Instead, she felt curious. “It was nicely preserved for educational purposes,” she said. “I wanted to see the muscles, the bones, the insides. It was not terrifying; it was exciting.”
On that day, a nurse was born.
Fulea, a registered nurse at Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, came to Lake Tahoe from her native Transylvania, Romania – which she described as “beautiful, with mountains, hills, waterfalls and farms” – as a 19-year-old exchange student in 2011.
She returned to Romania for a time, but came back to the United States – this time, to Michigan, where she lived for a decade. She was two years into her engineering degree when she realized that it wasn’t for her.
“I’m not one to sit behind a desk,” she said. “I have to keep busy. I have to be moving and doing different things at all times.”
While trying to figure out the right career path, Fulea worked for a Detroit-area oncologist who “planted the seed to become a nurse,” Fulea said. “She told me I should go into health care. And I asked myself, ‘How could I possibly do health care? I've never taken anatomy, microbiology or pharmacology – none of that.’ And yet, look at me now.”
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A first-generation college student
Fulea’s path to her dream job wasn’t easy. She worked at CVS as a pharmacy tech because, she said, “I wanted to get my foot in the door and know as much as I could about the medical field, including medications.” At the same time, she was also running her own cleaning business and working as a server/hostess.
Even when working three jobs – one of them entrepreneurial – she didn’t consider moving back to Romania. The rest of her family works harder than she does, she said. “My parents never went to college; they never had the chance,” she said. “I am a first-generation college student and self-made.”
Her hard work paid off when she was accepted into nursing school. And even though she already had two years of college under her belt, she started at the beginning of her community college’s course curriculum “with intro to biology, intro to chemistry, intro everything,” she said, before transferring to the University of Michigan.
‘Not once have I felt alone’
Transitioning from the post-Communist era in Romania to life in the United States was an adjustment, but one Fulea said people were eager to help her with. Her first impression was that “everyone was friendly.”
“Everyone welcomed me with open arms,” she said. “Not once have I felt alone. Life in Romania is hard. Everything's expensive, and people don’t make enough money.”
Fulea moved to North Carolina (she followed love – her boyfriend is a Wilmington native) and joined the team at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in 2022, beginning as a neurosurgery nurse.
In 2024, she transferred to the post-anesthesia care unit, or PACU, caring for patients who are waking up after surgery that involves sedation or anesthesia. The nursing team here carefully monitors each patient’s breathing because individual reactions to anesthesia may be different. Fulea and the PACU team are equipped to handle an emergency, should one occur.
After training as a charge nurse, she now runs the entire unit, where she keeps track of close to 25 operating rooms. She said the recovery room nurses are a tight-knit group who all pitch in to help each other.
“Our busiest time is between noon and 4 p.m. when we aim to have 20 or more nurses working,” she said. “I’m always trying to make sure everyone gets their 30-minute break and trying to make sure we can accommodate all surgical patients, all while keeping a smooth flow. It’s like a puzzle – one piece at a time.”
Supporting new nurses and building bonds
Karolina Ciurleo, originally from Sanok, Poland – near the Slovakian border – was one of the new nurses she precepted.
“The minute I met Kiva, I noticed she had a little bit of an accent,” Ciurleo said. “I still have one, too. And I asked, ‘Where are you from?’ When she told me she was from Romania, we were bonded right away.”
Ciurleo’s been in the United States more than 20 years. Like Fulea, she came for school. She met her husband while studying psychology in New York. They married, had kids and then she became a nursing assistant at a New York hospital, where she worked for eight years.
When the pandemic hit, many nurses left the field. That’s when Ciurleo decided to further pursue it.
“I went back to school when I was 38 and my youngest was 2,” said the mother of three. “My husband and I had always thought about leaving New York. His best friend lives in Wilmington, and we fell in love with the area when we’d visit.”
In Fulea, she found a friend, a reminder of home – and a role model.
“Kiva is the most amazing nurse I've ever worked with,” Ciurleo said. “She cares deeply for her patients. She advocates for her patients. She's not afraid to speak up for them. And I think that's part of that Eastern European blood; we're definitely not afraid to speak up.
“She was a wonderful preceptor. Every time we worked together, she made sure I was comfortable with everything I was expected to do. She gave me my independence, but she was always there to be my support.”
Before meeting Ciurleo, there was only one other person in Wilmington Fulea had met from her part of the world – a nurse anesthetist also from Romania. Fulea has also become friends with a group of Romanian expats. When they get together, they all speak their native language.
Home isn’t just a place, it’s a feeling
When Fulea’s not working, she loves exploring downtown Wilmington or hitting the beach with her boyfriend. “We love seeing the sunrise on the beach,” she said. “And there's a place in Wrightsville Beach we love to get breakfast.” She has four cats she enjoys spoiling, and she took up running recently. She’s already raced in 5Ks and 10Ks.
Fulea considers America her home now; she became a citizen in 2017. She tries to get to Romania at least every other year, and her family visits Wilmington about that often. They talk on the phone several times a week.
“They love coming here,” she said. “Back home, we live so far from the beach. You have to take time off work and travel across the country to get to the Black Sea. But here, it’s only a 20-minute car ride away.”
In her early years in the United States, she was homesick for Romania.
“Every time I’d go home and get ready to come back to the States, I would cry my eyes out,” she said. “Now, when I go to Romania, I can't wait to come back, because this is home. I love the people, my friends, my neighbors, everyone. I still love going back. But I don't feel bad leaving anymore.”
