Honors & Awards.

Within two years of finishing high school, Ramirez had signed up for the nursing program at Imperial Valley College and was hired at El Centro Regional Medical Center as an emergency department aide while finishing his nursing degree.

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“One of the professors saw how much I loved caring for the patients and recommended me,” he says. He explains that he was encouraged by their positive feedback. “It made me feel very good.”

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Ambitious, called a “natural-born leader” by friends and family, Ramirez migrated toward hard work, including picking grapes in Coachella, California, and taking a second job grilling and serving burgers during his early college years.

“Customer service. That’s where it started,” he quips. After earning his registered nurse (RN) license, he was soon promoted to his first leadership position as the in-charge nurse during his shift at the medical center.

 

“In a rural setting, there are not a lot of nurses. You get promoted quickly—maybe too quickly. I was thrown in without having management experience. But I was lucky. I’d already had that strong clinical experience and natural leadership ability,” Ramirez says.

“In my rural community, there was a lack of bachelor's or master's degree nurses and leaders. I wanted to make a difference, and become well-educated and experienced in order to advance in my career and to help my colleagues and my community,” he says.

Committed to continuing to teach and train, Ramirez now shadows nursing students twice weekly at the local hospital. He hopes to inspire and motivate them to continue with higher education.

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“We need more nurse leaders in our small rural community representing nurses in the inpatient and outpatient settings,” he says.

The natural-born leader is showing them how to succeed.

 

June 08, 2015: Jackie Dishner. Phoenix Focus Magazine