ACC Alumni Finds Strength in Family Battling COVID-19

Driven by the love of family, American Career College alumnus Anthony Pascual said he’s always had a passion to help people.

“I find strength from my family and friends,” Pascual said. “They wish me luck and safety each time that I work at the COVID-19 areas. Their appreciation of what I do gives me the motivation to work harder, and save more lives.”

Pascual, who graduated from the vocational nursing program at ACC-Los Angeles in 2016, now works at the Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center as an urgent care staff nurse. Every day, Pascual said, he and his fellow nurses face many of the frontline COVID-19 cases, including handling patient triaging, taking vital signs, carrying orders out from providers and performing drive-thru swabbing of possible COVID-19 patients.

“This is a very challenging job, I tell you. However, Kaiser Permanente is a great company, which provides their employees with necessary Personal Protective Equipment, such as N95 masks, gowns, gloves and more,” he said. “If you ask me, I am glad to be working with this company.”

Despite all of the protective measures at work, Pascual acknowledged that he still gets concerned about bringing the coronavirus home and infecting the people that inspire him to go out into the world each day.

"I have a 3-year-old nephew, a 7-year-old brother and parents in their 50s who are at high risks of contracting the disease," he said. "However, it is my passion to help people, so I will continue to get up each morning, and help people who are in need."

Pascual’s passion for nursing has only increased since graduation from ACC, he said. After completing the VN program, Pascual went back to school and graduated in 2020 with his bachelor’s degree in nursing from West Coast University. Most recently, in addition to working, Pascual took on the part-time role of assistant professor of human anatomy at West Coast University.

And while he appreciates the support nurses and health care workers in general have received recently, Pascual said he and the other hospital employees would trade all the accolades and praise for the peace of mind that comes by knowing people are being responsible in their day-to-day living.

“It is not about us, the healthcare workers,” Pascual said. “It's all about our patients. We make sure that we're taking good care of them amidst this COVID-19 pandemic. As a nurse, all I ask other people is to stay home. This is the only way to stop the fast spread of the disease.”

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