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Student turns experience with scoliosis into passion for nursing

UCLA student Erin Burgos had scoliosis as a child and is now training to be a registered nurse. (Anisha Joshi/Daily Bruin)

By Janice Shiao

June 5, 2016 4:35 p.m.

Erin Burgos grew up with scoliosis, a disease that affects the curvature of the spine. For three years, Burgos had to wear a back brace which made any type of movement difficult.

Now, Burgos said she enjoys an active life at UCLA. Burgos is involved in several student groups on campus, but she is most proud of wearing her two blue uniforms.

One is a light blue UCLA polo, which she wears as she walks backwards around campus telling incoming freshmen about Bruin Walk, Moore Hall, the Inverted Fountain and various facts about the university, she said.

On days she isn’t giving campus tours, Burgos wears her light blue scrubs to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She said she spent more than 300 hours over the past three months training to be a registered nurse.

She said she her experience in hospitals as a child motivated her to pursue nursing.

Burgos was diagnosed with scoliosis in sixth grade during a routine screening at school, said her mother, Era Burgos.

“It got worse over time and eventually she had to put on a back brace for 22 hours (every) day,” Era Burgos said. “The only time she could take it off was when she had to shower or when she had (physical education classes).”

Era Burgos said every three months, for almost three years her daughter visited CHLA, where she had her first encounter with registered nurses.

The nurses at the hospital were kind and supportive at a time where she felt extremely self-conscious, Erin Burgos said. Their kindness inspired her to build the same relationship with her patients when she becomes a registered nurse.

Burgos said she dreamed of attending UCLA like her father and many other members of her family. But being admitted to the UCLA School of Nursing was challenging, she said. The UCLA School of Nursing admits only about 60 freshmen each year and she was placed eighth on the waitlist when she applied in 2011.

“I wanted (to get into) UCLA so badly, I would leave my calculus class everyday to call the admissions office to ask them how many people had dropped from the waitlist and what my status was,” she said.

The nursing admissions office called her on May 4, 2012, to personally accept her to the UCLA School of Nursing, she said.

Samantha St. Germain, one of Erin Burgos’ closest friends and a fourth-year bioengineering student, said Burgos used to work at the gym, on campus tours and for an online blog during her sophomore year.

“She doesn’t complain about being stressed out about time,” St. Germain said. “She’s one of those people I’ve always looked up to because she never says no.”

Burgos is performing her last clinical rotation at CHLA, where she performs the tasks of a registered nurse under the supervision of her preceptor, Katy Stoltz, a CHLA registered nurse.

“She is one of the hardest working students I’ve ever had,” Stoltz said. “I would tell her to take a day off and she wouldn’t. She wanted to be in every experience she possibly could to better herself.”

In her clinical rotation, Burgos accompanied a 5-year-old girl in an Intensive Care Unit whose parents had to leave to consult a doctor, Stoltz said.

Burgos volunteered to sit with the patient for hours, even though she knew she would be missing out on opportunities to practice nursing skills, Stoltz said.

St. Germain said Burgos saw a young child die in one of her clinical rotations. Though St. Germain said she knew that experience was difficult for Burgos, it did not discourage her from pursuing a career in nursing.

Stoltz added she has seen Burgos become a stronger nurse compared to the first day of her rotation. She said she is inspired by Burgos’ ability to anticipate the next step without any instruction.

“I’m stuck with someone for 300 hours, and I am so thankful it was Erin because she is just a really cool girl and she’s become a great nurse,” said Stoltz.

Era Burgos said she does not doubt her daughter will achieve whatever she sets her mind to.

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