Meet Our Administrative Coordinator, Ari!

At 17 I got a slot in the Nursing School in the Central University of Venezuela, the most prestigious University of my country, where education is totally free. Because I was still a teenager, I found really scary the fact that I had to interact with patients just 6 months after beginning the career! It was so much pressure to handle! But my teachers and my friends helped me to manage it.

I got my first degree at the age of 20, which is the equivalent to a Nursing Assistant in the US. In that same year I got my first job as a Nurse. I didn’t like it at all, and I wanted to continue studying, so I decided to quit.

To be honest, at first I didn’t like my career, I couldn’t find my place in it, but I felt that I had to finish it. Lots of things happened to me to see that Nursing is not as bad as I thought while I was studying it. In 2012, my father was in an ICU and got declared in a vegetative state.

Was in that moment when I got interested in ICU area. I wanted to learn how to manage critical ill patients, and in 2014 I got my second job as a Nurse, but this time in an Adult ICU! I was really scared, because I didn’t have any experience in this area, I felt like I didn’t have any idea of anything, but I was looking forward to learn everything that my colleagues and also the doctors wanted to teach me. That was the moment where I just fell in love with my career and also my job. I fell in love with everything that an ICU Nurse has to take care of. I focused on my job, on my patients, and learning everything I could. I learned a lot from that job, and I’m really grateful for every single person that I met there.

Studying in a Public University in Venezuela can be difficult because of the multiple political and social problems that we deal with every day, and one of them are the University stoppages because of protests. It was in 2016 when I finally got my Registered Nurse degree.

Now, you may ask: “If she loves so much working in an ICU, why is she working as an Administrative Coordinator for NPCR?” Well, in my situation the answer is simple: Being a Nurse in my country is not easy. We’re living in a political, social and economic crisis, so remuneration can be the equivalent to 2$ a month! Yes, I love taking care of my patients, I enjoy talking to their families and trying to calm them down by explaining everything to them, I love running in every code blue announced and save lives, but unfortunately, I can’t be economically helpful for my house with only that. I was feeling lost, and that’s where I found this amazing opportunity with NPCR, where I can actually interact with colleagues from another country, and I find it fascinating! I think that I will be able to empathize with NP students, because I know how it feels to be under all the stress they’re going through, by having to go to their Clinical Rotations, keep studying, trying to have social life and also going work! Really exhausting, right?

Other reason why I’m here is to have the opportunity to strengthen my skills and fluency with English. I also want to have the chance to save money from my work to travel and meet other cultures in the future. So I see this as a new opportunity to learn new things and new people!