Nursing Values
I became a nurse by a twist of fate. It was the summer of 1990 and I was eighteen years old; it was approximately over a year since I arrived to the U.S. looking for the “American dream”; with no family, no money and trying to learn a language that I had no interest of learning while in high school in my native Peru. All I wanted is to have an opportunity to succeed in life, to make a difference in anything. That opportunity came when I found a job as nurse assistance in a small Convalescent Center in South Central Los Angeles. Vividly I still remember the first time I step into that facility. I have never seen so many elderly people in one place in my whole life. It was frightening for me, but it was the beginning of a long and satisfying journey. I learned the meaning of human dignity which for me encompasses respect. Interacting with the residents (patients), providing privacy while assisting with ADL’s and also realizing the difficulties and lack of autonomy an Acute Care Facility can have. This time of my life made a deep impact on me as a person. I decided to enhance my education in order to make a difference in people’s life.
The next obvious step for me was to become an LVN and I accomplished that task in 1992 and for a period of nine years all of which I worked in home health I learned the basic level of nursing and many task oriented procedures. In 2001 I finally became a Registered Nurse and I have been practicing emergency nursing ever since.
Working in an environment of fast pacing and making fast decisions where the adrenaline rush is so addicting is just the icing on the cake. Treating patients and families with dignity, and integrity, while having autonomy is what nursing is all about for me. Altruism is something most of us nurses have in common.