Nurses Become Friends at St Paul's PACE

Rafael Valazquez: My name is Rafael Velasquez. I'm a nurse here at St. Paul's PACE in Chula Vista. Uh, I've been here with, um, St Paul's PACE for about two years, What is PACE.

Jaime Meza: My name is Jaime Meza also a nurse here at PACE Chula Vista clinic. Uh, I've been working for PACE for two years and 11 months. So about to hit that three-year mark.

Working here at PACE Program I know you work with the elderly, you get to experience their different perspective of life. You know, uh, it's a very, uh, very unique, very rewarding. It's connected along with them. It's definitely a unique experience with regard to the patients. 

Rafael Valazquez: Um, it's definitely rewarding, as Jaime said, you know, the stories that you get from them, they've been around longer than you have is fun and it's enjoyable. And they're definitely grateful. I would say, you know, the flexibility that St. Paul's PACE has, um, is great as a nurse. Uh, other places aren't as flexible. You work really closely with like other, uh, departments within PACE, which kind of creates like a camaraderie with the other, with others that you work with. And it kind of creates like a family.

Jaime Meza: Not only do you work with. Coworkers your own nursing corridors, you work with other departments such as rehab or senior social work or dietitians or physical therapy for seniors. And everybody's cool here. Everybody's really comfortable each other. And everybody's just fine. You know, we always it's like you come to work. Yeah, you do work, but you also, you know, you enjoy, we enjoy coming to work.

Rafael Valazquez: Absolutely.

Jaime Meza: We went to the same nurses school actually, but different cohorts, I would see him, but you know, not really no knew him. And, um, next thing, you know, he was working, we were working at the same PACE and it was a man and it just, you know, from there on, we just became buddies and like same interests. Yeah.

Play soccer. We like soccer, you know, we we'd do a lot of. Even outside of PACE we've done. We've went out and it's like my brother almost, you know? Yeah. But then it's me and him are the only male nurses. So I think that's also a special camaraderie that we have. But yeah, no, no, it's awesome. It's been great to work with people.

Uh, my culture, you know, growing up with my family, uh, you know, my parents always taught me to care. You know, you have to respect your elders and you have to care for your elders. For me, every time I worked with one of our participants, it's like, I almost see them as family. You know, like if it was my grandparents, so it just comes so easy to care for them.

Rafael Valazquez: I'm going to be honest. I, when I first, when I was a nurse school, I was like, I did a rotation in Geri and I was like, man, this is not for you. This was a nursing school. And honestly, when, when I started working here, um, is great. And like, kind of said, I mean, especially here in PACE that the patients were just super accepting.

Uh, really grateful for what the service you provide. And, um, I don't know, the stories are, are great. It's, it's good to hear different walks of life and, and it is, it is fun. So I initially, no, I wasn't drawn to this, but once I came here, so. And I think that's really cool. You get people who are like 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, it's like a whole different world, you know, and you kind of get to experience their lives just by hearing them out. And it's, it's kinda cool, you know, just so I