I Am a Pediatric Medical/Surgical Nurse | Cincinnati Children’s

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I am a nurse. I am a nurse. A team player. A critical thinker. A mentor. A smile when you need it most. Passionate. Attentive. A source of knowledge. An advocate. I am a nurse.
Jenette: My name is Jenette Tuada, and I'm a nurse on the GI-Colorectal Unit. I've been a nurse since '96. I've worked with kids with HIV in Thailand. We basically took in the kids from the orphanage and took care of them in a housing facility. It made me think that I could make a difference in this setting.
My son was only 4 years old when I left and came to the US, and they basically had been at home for a year and two months before they could follow me, so it was a big, kind of like, move to a different country, different everything.
Patients, sometimes, would ask me, like, "Where are you from?" So I would tell them, like, "Where do you think I'm from?" Sometimes they would guess, like, I'm Japanese or Korean. I'm Filipino by parentage. Filipinos are known to be caring. I think it helped me be able to connect with my patients instead of just, you know, going into the room and doing one procedure and out the door.
Our unit cares for GI kids as well as colorectal patients. Gloria was one of our patients and I could still recall that her family was a good example of, you know, families that work together to care for each other and that kind of reminds me of families back home.
Gloria: I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease when I was 13 and I spent some time in and out of the hospital for about a year. I could tell that she cared for me as a person and not just a disease. I was truly touched and forever changed by the care that I received and I remember just having this knowledge of, like, this is what I want to do. I want to take care of little kids.
Jenette: Gloria would be the first person that I've come across that I've cared for and eventually became a nurse and, of all places, she had decided and had been accepted to work on our unit.
Gloria: My first day in the unit, I saw Jenette and I recognized her right away and she came over to me and she gave me a hug. It was just very familiar and, I don't know, it just made me really excited that I get to work right alongside her and a couple other nurses that took care of me. When she gave me a hug, it kind of made my day.
Jenette: Making a difference in each patient's lives is a good thing to do everyday. Children's, especially being a patient and family-centered facility, is a good thing to be a part of. My name is Jenette and I'm a nurse.