Marcella Gutierrez
2006 Graduate Scholarship Recipient
University of California, Los Angeles | School of Nursing
I was introduced to nursing at a young age because my mother is a nurse. She was recruited from England during the nursing shortage in the 1960’s. My father was a medical intern who had just arrived from Peru, and the rest is history.
Growing up, I was used to dinner conversations about disease processes and treatments, but it didn’t really mean anything to me. Years passed as I stumbled through my teenage and young adult years… I became rebellious, alienated my family, and dropped out of school.
When I was 28, I became pregnant with my only son Zachary, He was a complicated, emergency c-section delivery, and was admitted to the NICU for observation. I was distraught, confused and frightened. And who rallied around me? My family, and the nurses!
The post partum nurses were incredibly knowledgeable, compassionate and understanding. They wheeled me back and forth to the NICU to see my son, combed my hair and held my hand. The NICU nurses were so patient with me and taught me how to breast feed my son…. Their kindness and professionalism had a profound impact on me, and I knew that I had found my calling.
I suddenly realized the connection my parents had with their patients, and I new I had to go back to school. I graduated with honors from Cal State San Bernardino in 2004 and I have been working as an RN in the ICU at Redlands Community Hospital ever since.
I love being a nurse in the community that I live in. It is such a privilege to be allowed into the lives of patients and their families when they need education, compassion and support the most. Given this opportunity, I must boast about the nurses that trained me, and continue to teach me on a daily basis.
On my first day as a new nurse, I was sure I would be eaten….. that is what I had heard. Instead, with my eyes wide, I was taken under many wings, spoon fed, shown the way home, and pushed gently from the nest when it was my time to fly. The nurses that I work with have been my greatest teachers and mentors, and I thank them.
I am so proud to be a student at UCLA. It has been a phenomenal experience and I am excited to be moving toward the health promotion and disease prevention spectrum of nursing, as an advanced practitioner. Without the generous support of the Bonnie AC Lee Fang Foundation this would be a difficult endeavor.
As a single mother, I have had so much support, from my son’s father, my family, my best friend April, my devoted son Zachary, and your generous foundation. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I would like to end by reading a quote from Margaret Mead.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, Committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
