Internship program plants passion for health care field in Latino teens
BY SANDY THORN CLARK January 3, 2011 5:56PM
Nursing assistant Isabel Castrejon checks on one of her patients, 2-year-old Jackie Stiffend, in the Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Memorial Hospital. | John H. White~Sun-Times
Updated: April 19, 2011 5:31AM
‘Don’t I get a smile today? What’s wrong?” inquires Isabel Castrejon, gently rubbing the forehead of 2-year-old patient Jackie Stiffend in the Intensive Care Unit of Children’s Memorial Hospital.
Although Castrejon, a certified nursing assistant, doesn’t gain the desired response, she reaches for a blanket and assures her 26-pound patient, who suffered spinal fluid damage June 28, that — smile or no smile — she will join him later to watch his favorite “SpongeBob SquarePants” TV show. “They’re buddies,” explains Stephanie Bell of Chicago, smiling as she describes the relationship between her son and Castrejon.
Castrejon needn’t insist she’s exactly where she wants to be — in Children’s Memorial ICU. It’s written in her smile, her demeanor, her compassion, her energy, her enthusiasm, and her reaction to patients, their parents and her co-workers.
The 24-year-old Logan Square resident, who now attends nursing school at the University of Illinois at Chicago, credits her introduction to Maria Rivera and subsequently her participation in Discovering Health Care Careers — a summer internship program headed by Rivera and started in 2001 by Children’s Memorial in collaboration with Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) Alliance to expose Latino teens to a wide range of health care careers — as the triggers for her passion for nursing.
“My six weeks in Discovering Health Care Careers and the opportunity to observe what really happens in a hospital rather than relying on a textbook … this isn’t textbook … this is anything but textbook … was life-changing,” says Castrejon who, come Friday, will have worked in Children’s Memorial ICU part-time for three years — she currently works three 12-hour shifts weekly — following three additional years working part-time in the hospital’s pulmonary unit.
“I feel the program provided me with a great opportunity and opened doors for me I never thought I’d get. It’s just amazing here — to be treated by doctors and nurses like you’re family … to get to observe the operating room, ER [emergency room], pathology, the morgue, even the helicopter,” Castrejon adds.
“What I like most is observing the teamwork required to get a patient home,” explains Castrejon, proud to be the first member of her family to graduate from high school and attend college and thankful for her parents’ support. Castrejon hopes to complete her education and be hired full-time by 2012 when Children’s Memorial moves into its 23-story, state-of-the-art hospital, to be renamed Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, now under construction in Streeterville.
Castrejon, who describes herself as a “kid at heart” and “adventurous” — she loves sky diving, canoeing, and Harry Potter books and movies — realizes being a bilingual health provider is advantageous. She recalls being asked by the mother of a young Latino patient with a heart defect to translate into Spanish what doctors were telling her:
“The mother was afraid, confused. She wanted me to help her by translating … really, she just needed someone to listen to her and talk to her. It’s important for parents and patients to see a face similar to theirs and to be able to communicate.”
Becky Vizzone, Support Service Manager in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, who hired and mentors Castrejon, notes that Castrejon provides a contagious enthusiasm, energy and optimism: “After 20 years as a nurse, I need to see Isabel’s perspective on nursing and, frankly, she knows more about supplies than I do. There’s a code [for an emergency], and I look up and there’s Isabel running …
“It’s a wonderful sight.”
Sandy Thorn Clark is a local free-lance writer.
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