A woman who once worked as a janitor at a Massachusetts hospital is now a nurse practitioner at the same medical center.
Jaines Andrades posted on Facebook about her 10-year journey from custodian to registered nurse to nurse practitioner at Baystate Medical Center in Massachusetts.
“10 years of work but it was worth it! I’m a provider at the same place I use to clean,” Andrades wrote in the post from Sept. 28. The post, which has been shared more than 10,000 times, also includes an image of three work IDs that showcase Andrades’ journey: The first is labeled “custodian,” the second, “registered nurse,” and the third, “nurse practitioner.”
Andrades was a 19 year old working at a fast food restaurant when she got a call for an interview to work for Baystate Health, which she saw as a “good idea. Even if it was cleaning, as long as I was near patient care I’d be able to observe things,” said Andrades, who has always had a passion for helping others.
She began working as a custodian at the hospital in 2010, and was responsible for cleaning operating rooms and the urgent care unit while matriculating through nursing school at Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts.
“I was able to interact with the nurses, and I would see patients coming and going from the operating room,” Andrades recounted. “It was my first time seeing what it really is to be a nurse, and it piqued my interest. I was excited to learn more,” she told WBZ-TV.
She gradated from Elms College in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, and was hired in 2015 as a nurse at Mason Square Neighborhood Health Clinic. There, she met a nurse named Gloria Wilson, who convinced her to pursue a doctorate in nursing.
“She was actually the one who convinced me to go to nurse practitioner school. She was getting her master’s (degree), and she said she saw me doing it. She definitely persuaded me,” Andrades told Mass Live.
Andrades then studied for her doctorate while working as an acute care nurse at Baystate. She graduated earlier this year, but was unable to attend her graduation ceremony because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She now works as a nurse practitioner at Baystate in trauma surgery.
“It wasn’t a smooth ride, it wasn’t an easy ride, but it got done,” Andrades said. “That’s what I’m happy about.”
Andrades, a Buffalo, New York, native born to Puerto Rican parents, said she first became interested in nursing after a doctor’s visit, during which a nurse told her about the benefits of the profession.
She hopes her journey will inspire others. “Your life is what you make it, and, if you’re working towards your dreams and you believe in yourself and you believe in your dream, it doesn’t matter if the path isn’t perfect, Andrades said.
