Michelle Estrada, RN
Las Vegas, NV

Michelle Estrada always pictured herself as a nurse while growing up in Salt Lake City, but it wasn’t until she spent time as a Mormon Missionary in North Carolina that she knew it was her true calling.

“While I was in North Carolina I served with a nurse who really inspired me,” said Estrada. “The minute I got home I made up my mind to become a nurse and now I’ve been in nursing for 26 years.”

Estrada served as a clinic nurse in Utah before moving her family to Nevada seven years ago. She now works as a med/surg nurse at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals caring for patients recovering from surgeries and other medical problems.

A single mom, Estrada’s work is far from over when her 12 hour shift at the hospital ends. She has three children, Jake, Aaron and Amy. Amy will be following her mother’s footsteps this fall when she heads to the University of Portland to study nursing.

But Estrada worries about the problems facing nurses across the country.  Nurses at St. Rose have united through the union and as a result have been able to negotiate staffing levels of five or six patients in the med/surg during a shift.  However, many nurses in Nevada and across the country who don’t have a voice on the job are forced to care for ten or more.

“When you have that many patients, it’s impossible to provide the care they need,” she said. “Patients deserve more from their nurse than a few minutes an hour at the bedside.”

“That’s why so many nurses leave the bedside every year. I don’t want my daughter to be one of the ones to leave due to shortstaffing and other conditions inside hospitals.”

Estrada says fixing our health care crisis and ensuring safe staffing levels will be at the top of her list when she goes to caucus next year, and a major topic of conversation when she spends time with Senator Clinton.