Hear how nurses are giving back to their communities, and to the world. In this episode of Nursing Notes Live, you’ll meet a nurse and a physician’s assistant involved with the Nursing Innovation Council of Excellence Employee Resource Group (NICE ERG) at Johnson & Johnson, and hear about their recent visit to Nicaragua.

We talk about the NICE ERG program and their recent trip to Nicaragua to participate in an initiative with the Ministry of Health in Nicaragua and Save the Children, a non-governmental organization that promotes children’s rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries. Here’s that discussion.

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Jamie Davis:         Maida and Yvonne, I want to thank you both for coming on nursing notes live this month. It’s really a pleasure to have both of you here joining us.

Both:                     Thank you very much.

Jamie:                   So we always start off with one question for our nurses on the show and I’m curious to hear about your answers to this as well. Maida, we’ll start with you, why don’t you tell us why you wanted to become a nurse.

Maida Figuereo:      Thank you, Jamie. I wanted to become a nurse since I can probably remember. When I was a very young girl, my grandfather was stricken with Guillain-Barre and he was frequently in the hospital. I just remember the adults just feeling so anxious and worried for him and watching the healthcare team get him back to good health was probably the first opportunity I had to think, “I wanted to be one of those people. I wanted to be someone that brings a member of the family that’s so loved back to good health”. And then later on, when I was looking for career opportunities in high school, I was fortunate enough to know two really great nurses had very different nursing roles. One was involved in public health and the other one was in acute care setting. My dad always wanted me to be a nurse. He pressed me to meet with these folks and spend a day with them. Once I saw what they did and how their lives really were touched by the people that they cared for and the difference that they need each and every day, it just really solidified it for me that that’s who I wanted to be. I wanted to be someone that gives back and have enriching life and to make a difference in people’s lives to bring health to each and every one of the individuals. The teaching that they did at that was another interest of mine. They did a lot of education and that just really appealed to me greatly. So ever since I can remember, to answer your question, I’ve always wanted to be a nurse. It’s a great call and happy that I did.

Jamie:                   That’s fantastic. Yvonne, how about you?

Yvonne Vazquez:      You know, Jamie, similar to Maida, I think since I was an adolescent I always wanted to be a nurse. My father had suffered many years of COPD and having seen the suffering that he went through for many years really encouraged me to pursue a career in medicine. So I would say I decided to become a nurse at age 18. I graduated high school early. I was fortunate. I went to nursing school when I was 17 actually and graduated when I was just nearly 20 and worked at a private urgent care centers for seven years. I loved that. I loved being in the in the trenches and having that excitement of ER and always wanted to help people. But pretty much I wanted to further my education. I thought of going into – to get my MD and heard about...