Ever since the uprising of COVID-19 earlier this year, all of our lives have changed in drasticways. Especially, with our first responders and healthcare workers. With that, I was lucky enough to sit down with my mom, Sabina Vales, and discuss her personal journey of becoming a nurse, how she balances her work/home life, and how much her job has changed within the past year.

Born in the small province of Pangasinan in the Philippines, she grew up on a farm with her mom, dad, and 7 other siblings. Growing up, she had always dreamed of becoming a nurse with the main intent of building income, branching out of her current home, and purely just giving back to her family. However, considering her location, she doubted her capabilities of ever reaching that goal. This was the case until in high school, she had saved a fellow neighbor’s life from a poisonous snake bite just using boiled banana leaves and yams to extract the inside of the bite and cover it from any infections.

Taken back by her creative ways, I had asked her what had sparked that idea.
She stated, “I don’t know what it was but I guess I was lucky enough to have seen those
materials and for them to actually help him recover.”

Since that incident, she was able to help other neighbors with their needs and was even able to assist many women when giving birth in the town. This had ignited this fire she had and pushed her more in realizing that nursing could finally be a reality. Luckily enough, she was able to get into nursing school and graduated with a BSN (Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing) in 1992.

After years of working as a nurse in the Philippines, she moved to the US in 2001 with her
husband. Knowing that this would’ve been a huge change in culture and environment, she was driven with the passion to keep pursuing her career in a new setting. In comparison to her position back in the Philippines, she was able to specialize in all departments within the hospital (pediatrics, emergency, etc.) and cycle through many different tasks. While here, she has one designated department which is now in Pulmonary Thoracic Surgery. This means she now only works with patients that have undergone surgery in either
their lungs, heart, and/or esophagus.

This department has given more risks considering the pandemic. Her floor, now flooded with patients with COVID-19, provides even more of a challenge to her and the faculty. To combat these challenges, Sabina illustrated the idea of Personal Protective Equipment, also known as PPE (ex. masks, face shields, etc.), and how its usage plays a huge role in the hospital now. Time limits in cafeterias and break rooms have also been set in place to minimize contact from fellow nurses, staff, and patients.

The main challenge she says she’s faced the most is just acknowledging the general fear of contracting it and potentially spreading it to her family. Although to combat this challenge, she said she has felt more comfortable now with her usage in PPE and is confident in her work.

Being a mom is also a huge challenge as well. To balance these two contrasting jobs, she has set two parts of her week focusing on each part of her life. She’s reserved on weekends and Fridays for nursing and the rest of the week for her home life. She has also used her personal hobbies outside of both worlds to take care of herself. She enjoys taking safe outdoor walks/runs, sewing, cooking new recipes, working on home organization, and home renovations.

Closing off the discussion, I had asked her to advise future healthcare workers and aspiring nurses. She had wholeheartedly commented, that having a passion and drive for your job is what’s going to help you persevere through the challenges in your future career. With COVID, every job now has its overall obstacles so it’s best to stick with what your interests are and make sure you love what you do.

To regular citizens of all ages, she advised continuing wearing your masks, social distancing, understanding the factors of contamination, and to keep up with general hygiene/cleaning. Taking this, she believed that this could assist in sparking change and potentially restore our lives into place.