inPractice - Summer 2019 - 16

EVENTS &
ALUMNI NEWS

RESILIENCY PERSONIFIED
CAREER STARTER

Gladys Amparo, ASN '18
Surgical Nurse, WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital
Through it all, Gladys Amparo's dream of being a nurse
never wavered. Not when she moved, alone and at age 13,
from her mother's troubled home in North Carolina (her
father was in prison) to Lancaster to stay with friends. Not
when, in high school and between places to stay, she wasn't
sure where she would find her next meal. And certainly
not when she had to take a semester off from PA College
to work full time in a pharmacy to pay for college.
"My teachers at PA College were amazing. The intensity of
my program really prepared me for real-life nursing," says
Amparo, who earned the needed funds (supplemented by
scholarships) to return to PA College to earn her ASN in
2018. Today, Amparo works full time as a surgical nurse at
WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital. She is also pursuing
her BSN, which she expects to complete in 2020.
For someone who overcame numerous obstacles at
a young age, it is not surprising that Amparo embraced the
challenges of her nursing education. "The hands-on learning

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from my PA College clinical rotations put me in
uncomfortable situations that made me grow," says
Amparo, who has spoken on panels for the National
Association for the Education of Homeless Children
and Youth.
"My past has given me the perspective that you never
know what might be going on with your patient, rich
or poor-you just don't know," says Amparo, who hopes
to pursue her MSN to become an acute care nurse
practitioner in a hospital setting. "Nursing is more than
caring for physical health. You need to care for the
psychosocial health too. Having conversations with my
patients allows me to better connect with them and get
them to the resources they need. People are surprised
to hear my story. What I have learned is that you need
to be resilient at all times." n
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inPractice - Summer 2019

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