Al - A Better Team Member

Al -







I was born and raised in the Philippines, and while in high school I began to think about going abroad to work in the medical field. I didn’t want to be a physician because it required too many years of schooling with no guarantee that it would lead to a job in another country. Nursing, on the other hand, sounded like a better fit for me. I learned as a child the value of caring for people. As the youngest of the siblings in my family I was always the recipient of very tender loving care. In the Philippines, family is very solid and mine is a very close extended family, so I grew up able to appreciate others caring for me. I guess I wanted to return that same kind of caring. At the same time, I wanted be able to work abroad for a better future educationally and financially.

It looked like the profession belonged to the female gender. My class at the university had initially eighteen male nursing students, but only four of us were able to graduate. I was elected the president of the nursing class for two years in a row, and when I graduated from that university, I became the alumni president. It was very fulfilling to have that kind of recognition from my fellow classmates, especially since so many of them were women.

My experience going through a program dominated by females made me more confident that I’d be able to interact with nurses of either gender more professionally. It gave me a broad understanding of how people react to one another. If I had entered a male-dominated profession I may have built a relationship with my colleagues through “male bonding.” Instead, I understand the personality differences between the genders better, and how those differences affect behavior. It makes me a better team member, I believe.

As the years progressed, I have become very comfortable and satisfied with my career choice.“I grew up able to appreciate others caring for me. I guess I wanted to return that same kind of caring to others.” My impressions of nursing changed dramatically when I came to the United States. In the Philippines, nurses follow the doctors’ orders and do not ever question them. Here nurses are more empowered to share their opinions and observations and patient care is better here because there are more professionals lending their expertise.

Those entering the field should get as much experience as they can in different areas. They shouldn’t settle too quickly on one specialty so you can get a good feel for what you would like the best by trying them all. Additionally, exposure to only one area can lead to burnout. I have personally experienced burnout after a certain number of years.

Burnout can jeopardize the quality of care that you give to patients. When it happened to me I had to take action to be fair to myself, my co-workers and to the recipients of my care. What I did at that time was to cut back gradually on my work hours. I’m now a per diem nurse, but not too many people can afford to reduce their hours like that. I was able to do it because of the income from a business that I started years ago, which is an elder care facility.

My wife and I opened the facility when we were ready to begin a family, so that she could quit her nursing job. For me, caring for the elderly comes naturally, because it is what we do back home. Families stay together, and the young care for the old. It was natural for me to take that kind of caring and turn it into a successful family business. I feel fortunate to have both that and my regular job, which is with the open heart surgery team at the hospital.

The tradition in my family of caring for each other is partially cultural, and I’m grateful that it helped lead me to this profession. There’s an automatic desire within me to do this, because I was immersed in an atmosphere of caring which began from inside our family circle. But I don’t see it as a gift or a calling; it is just part of my life – it’s who I am – someone who cares about other people.

Power Strategies: Ethics, Achievement, Adventure
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