For Eduardo, who works at USC Arcadia Hospital, each shift is about providing the very best patient care, without hesitation, ready for anything. (His manager calls him “one-step-ahead-Ed.”) He has an unusually fluid ability to understand how to show up in any given situation.
He can move gracefully from leading to collaboration and guidance-seeking, from being a teacher to being taught. The ability to read a situation and understand how to respond, as he does, requires enormous emotional intelligence. Eduardo can be funny or serious, can listen and ask the right questions, and can quickly and calmly lead in a crisis. He draws on a deep well of connection and creativity that impacts patients’ wellbeing and even outcomes of life-or-death situations. This is a very rare gift: a beautiful and effective way to embody nursing practice.
Recently, the procedure for hand-off between nursing shifts has moved from a private nurse-to-nurse conversation to a conversation at the bedside that includes the patient along with the nurses to promote transparency and patient/family engagement. Looking at the evidence, Eduardo believed that the new process would be better for everyone, so he volunteered to help launch the new protocol. Eduardo is known for being kind but firm with his colleagues about always doing the hand-off at each patient’s bedside. He’s never afraid to do what he thinks is right and to advocate for culture change for the benefit of his patients. To this end, he actively seeks out feedback from his manager so he can continue to grow in his practice by prioritizing human connection inherent to nursing.
Beyond nursing, Eduardo is a fitness and wellness, and sports enthusiast. He’s been a vegan for four years, bikes along city trails and beach sidewalks, and makes it to as many Dodgers and Lakers games as he can.