MSU Texas Nursing graduate has passion to help and mentor others

Mission accepted

MSU Texas Nursing graduate has passion to help and mentor others

Blanca Gutierrez has a mission before her. She wants to help people. Seeing her godmother deal with cancer as a youngster motivated her to be there for others. 

Nothing she experienced in 2020, pandemic or not, was going to take that away. Where there's a will, there's a way, and Blanca certainly had more than enough will. And the MSU Texas bachelor’s degree in nursing provided the way. 

“This pandemic has been an eye-opener for all health-care workers, it has been a year of continued education for us all,” Blanca said. “As a health-care professional, I am constantly researching and learning new information so that I can better my nursing practice and provide health promotion.” 

Blanca graduated with her RN from Vernon College in May. In June, she took a position as an RN case manager with Healing Hands Healthcare in Wichita Falls. She applied to two Family Nurse Practitioner programs and hopes to start in Summer 2021. In the meantime, she plans to stay affiliated with MSU Texas. 

Blanca is excited about her role as a mentor to first-year Latino university students through the Somos Familia Mentoring Program. 

“I want to help other young minority students achieve their academic goals,” she said. “The MSU BSN program is truly great! I am a part of social media groups for nursing students, and anyone looking for BSN programs, I send them info about MSU. The curriculum is thorough and well structured. The work is heavy, but if the person is motivated and practices time management more efficiently, the program can be stress-free. The cost of the program is also great!” 

Blanca was born and raised in Graham, Texas, and attended Graham High School, graduating in 2010. She worked as an LVN for nine years before becoming an RN through Vernon College. “I am fortunate and proud to be able to serve the Graham area and rest of Young County as a home health nurse,” she said. 

Her hobbies include spending time with her family and she loves to run, even if the busyness of 2020 put that on the back burner. Some sacrifices are worth making, after all. She remembers when she decided her career path.

“My interest in nursing began when my godmother (Blanca Estella) was diagnosed with cancer, I was young, and the cancer was quick to debilitate her completely,” Blanca said. “I was there for it all; I remember spending a whole summer with her and thinking she was going to recover, but that was not the case. In her last days, I helped with her meals and I would eat so that she would eat, even though she didn't want to. I saw how painful and intolerable chemo treatments were. I realized I wanted to help people who were in their weakest moments, and I strive to make a difference in someone's life when everything else seems to be going wrong. I want patients to feel comfortable in my care. And that is my passion for nursing.”

And she is appreciative of the role MSU Texas played in her career development.

“The staff is just as amazing, all of my courses have been easy to follow with detailed explanations and expectations,” Blanca said. “The staff are quick to provide answers to any questions. They are tough graders, but absolutely fair, and they will leave you feedback so that you make can make changes in your class work.”