Tri-City Medical Center Assistant Nurse Manager Robert Hernandez describes his journey from growing up on an island to working in the Intensive Care Unit.
In the Intensive Care Unit there is a buzz of activity. Machines beep and whir, you hear clicking keyboards, shuffling papers, nurses and doctors talking, strategizing plans for patient care. As you step closer, there is a calm, kind voice informing patients and mentoring other nurses. That voice belongs to Robert Hernandez, the Assistant Nurse Manager at Tri-City Medical Center.
Growing up in the Philippines as the youngest of four, Robert knew he wanted to help people. “One way out of the country, is going to Nursing School and hoping to find a job here in the U.S.” He said back home there are limited opportunities depending where on the islands you grew up and your status.
“Even if you finish college, there’s no guarantee you’ll have a job,” he said. At age 17 he came to the U.S. with aspirations to go to college, but that plan quickly changed. Robert said the U.S. didn’t accept his schooling in the Philippines, so joined the Navy and became a corpsman.
Working in the pediatric ward at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton cemented his desire to work in healthcare. Four and a half years later he started working in other San Diego area hospitals. A happy accident led him to Tri-City, “when we decided to buy property, we ended up buying in Oceanside and of course the closest hospital to Oceanside is Tri-City.”
Robert has worked for TCMC since 2001. “Since graduating Nursing School I’ve always wanted to work in ED or ICU,” he said referring to the Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit. He enjoys the fast pace and opportunity to heal some of the sickest patients. “Every day you come to work, you learn something. That’s what motivates me to come in every day.”
The pandemic brought a new level of challenges. “We had one patient who stood out. In the initial stages of COVID, people were coming to the ICU and were rarely able to recover. There was this one person everyone worked so hard on and this guy was able to make it to ICU. It was not an easy recovery for him, they thought he was going to need a lung transplant and he was transported to a hospital in LA. Thankfully, he ended up not needing a transplant, was discharged, went home and came back to our ICU to thank everyone. That was great to see, there is so much of that that happens in the ICU… It’s very rewarding to see a severely sick patient rebound due to our work.”
When asked what he thinks when nurses are called heroes and angels, he said:
“Wow. That is such a compliment and we have a lot of angels here. All our staff, I mean the whole hospital, they sacrifice a lot to take care of our community.”
As we celebrate National Nurses Week, Robert has this advice for aspiring nurses, “make sure this is what you want to do as a career because it will show in your work ethic and the level of care you provide your community.”
Thank you, Robert for your commitment to our community and your dedication to your team.