Colleagues discuss their motivation for becoming nurses and caring for others
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In this edition of "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences," you will hear from Brittaney White and Juan Cazares Gonzalez as they share their reasons for becoming nurses and reflect on their experiences.
Mayo Clinic is a unique place: the culture, the values, the people. "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences" explores the experiences of Mayo Clinic staff as they navigate life personally and professionally. Sharing these experiences increases understanding of others and ultimately contributes to finding connections, belonging and inclusion at work.
In this episode of "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences," Brittaney White and Juan Cazares Gonzalez share their motivations for becoming nurses and reflect on their experiences caring for others.
White shares that her inspiration for becoming a nurse stemmed from her great-grandmother's ask for care. Her sister's positive experience at Mayo Clinic motivated her to join the organization.
Cazares Gonzalez reflects on his journey, which began with his grandfather receiving treatment and the compassionate care provided by the nursing staff.
Both nurses describe how their personal values align with the values of the organization's commitment to putting the needs of the patient first and upholding its core values of respect, integrity, compassion, healing, teamwork, innovation, excellence and stewardship — RICH TIES.
Listen as White and Cazares Gonzalez share their experiences.
Read the transcript
Narrator: This is the "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences" podcast, where we build trust and belonging through the authentic storytelling of our Mayo Clinic staff. In this episode, you will hear two nurses, Brittaney and Juan, discuss the importance of their role in caring for our patients.
White: I was a licensed practical nurse for 15 years before I became a nurse. But the reason I became initially a nurse is I spent a lot of time with my grandparents, my great-grandma specifically, who always asked me to be her doctor. As I got older, I did not want to be a doctor as I did not feel like being in school that long, and that's when I initially became a nurse. And then 15 years later, I decided I should probably go back and get my RN, so I did.
Cazares Gonzalez: I think we have kind of a similar story, family influence. With me, I was very young when my grandpa experienced treatment. I was with him a couple of times when he visited the hospital. I noticed how they would connect with him on the things that he enjoyed doing during those visits. I just remember seeing him smile and that started my journey that I want to be in healthcare. It brought me to where I am now in terms of my career goal was to become a nurse after noticing the impact that nurses had on not only the patients but their families. I think that's something that stuck out to me is the importance of taking care of somebody and not just the individual person that's required in treatment, the whole family that's there with the patients. Ultimately, they're the support that help them get through what they're going through. I wanted to do that for somebody else, so that kept me going and got me through my journey in nursing school.
White: I find that interesting part about caring not just for the person who is being treated but caring for the whole family. I think that is important. If you treat the family and the patient, it makes the patient feel more at ease. And the reason I also came to Mayo was because of my sister. She received treatment at Mayo. She told me that they made her feel like a person and she told me that sometimes they made her feel like a celebrity. That was the moment that made me realize that's where I wanted to be as a nurse. And so that's what I did. Because of people like you who make people feel important.
Cazares Gonzalez: A lot of us are in the shoes of being a patient or being a family member to a patient. And we have those experiences, and it informs how we then see what we do as nurses, how we continue and carry forward in the way that we treat patients on a regular basis. I was born in Mexico, so a completely different country with a completely different healthcare system. I was very young when my family immigrated to the U.S. We ended up in Minnesota out of all places to reside in. I didn't know anything about Mayo Clinic as a young person, but somehow, that completely melded with my dream of becoming a nurse.
The values that Mayo Clinic has as an institution really align well with the values that I have and what I find important when providing care to patients.
Juan Cazares Gonzalez
I don't think I could find myself working anywhere else unless it was with Mayo Clinic. Being here has been a huge influence in terms of why I'm here. The values that Mayo Clinic has as an institution really align well with the values that I have and what I find important when providing care to patients. Thinking about somebody like you mentioned with your sister, she felt like a person. Everybody connects with you on a personal level. They're interested in your journey, they're interested in how they can help you along the way. That's the part that keeps me coming back and wanting to be part of the team. It is knowing that every day, I have the opportunity to make such a large impact in the little bit of time that sometimes you get with your patients.
White: I agree. At Mayo Clinic, the needs of the patient come first, and I tell people all the time that it's not just words. It's a living, breathing thing every single day, with every person, any department. It's the culture of Mayo. I can't even tell you the number of times I've had a patient tell me that they feel valued, which is extremely important.
Cazares Gonzalez: Like you described it, it's a culture that Mayo Clinic has and continues to nurture. As stewards of those values and the environment that we practice in, I feel like every person that I work with has the same mindset. It's really interesting to see that, by sharing those values, it makes the patients know and feel comforted in the fact that they're being treated the same by every single person they interact with. It's really easy for me to be proud of that because if I go to one of my other colleagues, I know that they're here for the same reason that I'm here.
Patients will ask me, "Do you guys get a crash course on how to be nice to people and how to talk to people and how to be kind and be compassionate?" I always smile. "I don't think so. I don't recall taking that course." But you're surrounded by it. Everywhere you go you see those values. You see the value of wanting to have the patient be the center of the care that we provide. But more importantly, talking about those values of what Mayo has in their mission, and what we refer to as RICH TIES. It's very much at the forefront of how everybody here works. And I think that's the perfect alignment. It's like when you have a constellation, and you look up at the stars, you can see the defined constellation, and I can see it. That's how I feel when I'm here. I'm not lost anymore. I can see the way that they have aligned their values, just perfectly with mine. It makes it feel like I'm not working when I'm working. Even on those tough days where you're really exhausted at the end of your shift and you feel like you did a lot. I come back the next day and I'm ready to do it again to see what other impact I can have.
White: Do you have a defining moment of your biggest impact as a nurse?
Cazares Gonzalez: I feel like I have a lot of those little moments of joy that fill my cup and that keep me going. I have the pleasure of working in our Nursing Council for the entirety of the Rochester campus, so I'm lucky enough to represent the nurses at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. I work with some great colleagues who are my coaches in that council. I felt so nervous coming into that role. But every time I come in with a challenge that I don't know how I'm going to overcome it, they help me. I feel safe, comfortable, like I can tackle anything. They're so empowering.
At Mayo Clinic, the needs of the patient come first, and I tell people all the time that it's not just words. It's a living, breathing thing every single day, with every person, any department.
Brittaney White
I had so many really good experiences when we worked well as a team. But I think what makes it for me is that everybody who is here has the same mindset and is here for the right reasons, and it just makes it easier for me to live out my why. How about you?
White: We had a patient who was with us over 100 days and they got some bad news that they weren't going to be going home. And it was someone who we'd all gotten to know and love very much. He loved fishing. It was his favorite thing. It's all he ever talked about was getting out of there to go fishing. And they offered him to be able to go home like with hospice care, and he asked if he could just stay with us. And they said, yes. And so I got permission for sunshine privileges to take him outside. We have some beautiful ponds at the Jacksonville campus, and so I took him and about 16 family members to the pond and surprised him with his fishing pole. And on his third cast, he caught a big bass. It was just such a beautiful, incredible moment that I really can't describe the joy that it gave me to see his family and see him get to fish one last time. The smile on his face was just priceless. So that was definitely probably my biggest moment of why I'm in the right place, doing the right thing. It's a memory I will always cherish for sure.
If I could give any advice to aspiring nurses, it is to do it with your whole heart. Think about the people you're taking care of. They're going through struggles, and sometimes they just want to feel normal. They don't want to be defined by whatever they're going through. Take a little extra time out of your day to make them feel human. Bring a smile to someone's face because it's the simple things. It's not all about checking boxes. It's truly about caring for the people, the individual, the family — all of that is the most important part of being a nurse.
Cazares Gonzalez: Yeah, I think find something that resonates with you when you're working. Find your reason to keep going. Sometimes that's as simple as reconnecting or refocusing your shift as to what you enjoy about nursing. You summed it up perfectly. The ability for you to connect to what you do as a nurse is so important because every action that you have has a huge impact on somebody. Like that story you shared about your patient, I can guarantee you that had an immense impact not only on that patient, but on all the other members of their family who were there that day, who brought the culmination of their life into such a happy moment. You can't train somebody to do that. That's something that is innate in a nurse.
To anybody who is going to nursing school is just to know that, yes, as a nurse, there are many skills that you will learn throughout your nursing career while you're in school, while you're on orientation. But what's really important is the value that you bring through those actions. You also have the ability to touch somebody's soul, whether it's the individual you're taking care of or their family members. And that's so incredible. Again, I think back to my grandpa. Those people made him smile when he shouldn't have been smiling because of the pain that he was in, and they were able to do that. I think back to those moments when I made a difference, and I made an impact. As a nurse, you have so many different avenues to do that. I've seen other people, like yourself, Brittney — that's who you are. That's a reflection of your values, and it's being showcased by the work that you do with your patients. I'm proud to call you my colleague. I will take this as an inspiring moment that I picked the right vocation. I work with the greatest people, and I'm happy to say that you've inspired me.
Narrator: Thank you both for sharing your experiences with us and the passion you bring to caring for our patients and their loved ones. Sharing stories like these increases our understanding of one another and ultimately contributes to finding connections, belonging and inclusion at work.
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