Sunday, March 19, 2000

Student gains mentor, friend in ICU nurse who cared for her

When Jennifer Christine Vega realized that the Driscoll neonatal intensive care unit nurse who had addressed her class was the nurse who cared for her when she was born premature 24 years ago, the Del Mar College student knew that this had been no chance encounter.
   "She was a sign that, yes, indeed I was on the right path, that I was doing what I'm supposed to be doing with my life," said Vega, a licensed vocational nurse preparing to graduate from Del Mar's registered nurse education program in May.
   Hearing 56-year-old Arvilla Johnson talk about her 35-year nursing career prompted Vega to go home and search through her baby album for one particular picture of her as a baby being held by a nurse at Driscoll. She had often looked at it in the past, but this time everything clicked.
   The nurse was Johnson.
   "Ever since I was 5 years old, I knew I wanted to become a nurse," she said. "When I met Arvilla, it was like my past came back and my future was right before me."
   Loving their work
   Vega and Johnson met a week after their lives crossed paths again and to their delight discovered that they have much in common.
   Like Johnson did years ago, Vega returned to school to become a registered nurse. When Vega's not in class, she divides her work schedule between nurseries at two local hospitals.
   "Working with babies has been her love since the beginning," Vega said of Johnson. "And I'm the same way. I love working with healthy babies and sick babies."
   Johnson recalls one particular intensive care unit case early on in her career that made her a better nurse, one she shares with nursing students such as Vega so that they might better understand how much nurturing is a part of nursing. The infant's parents, Johnson recalled, lived out of town and were unable to be at their child's side much of the time. That meant nurses and doctors were the ones most around him during his short life. When that baby lost his fight for life, Johnson said, she was no longer the same nurse.
   'It needs to be held'
   "You have to do more than just tend to a baby's basic needs," Johnson said. "A baby needs more than being turned or fed, it needs being held."
   Which is why Johnson encourages parents to slip their hands underneath their baby, no matter how tiny, to let the newborn feel their warmth. And when there are no parents to be found, Johnson steps in, no matter how hectic her 10 1/2 - hour shift may be. She scoops her "little cubs" in her palms, her way of letting them know someone is praying for their lives.
   Passion for nursing
   "You have to really want (a neonatal ICU) career and you have to love it," Johnson said, explaining that "no two deaths are alike and you hurt for the parents when a baby dies."
   The bonding is so deep, that when one dies "I have to have closure too," Johnson said. "I try to go to the funerals to say goodbye because that baby affected my life also."
   It is that passion for nursing that Vega admires about Johnson.
   "I've gained not only a mentor, but a friend," Vega said. "She's actually what I hope to become."
  
 

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