Care from the Heart: Naresh’s Story
Every now and then you come in contact with an exceptional nurse—one who has taken the time to get to know you as a patient.
Naresh Rana, RN, BSN, whose petite frame stands five-foot-two, is casually dressed in a pair of jeans. It’s her off day. She is polite, soft-spoken, humble, yet prepared to talk about her nursing career.
Rana has been motivated to help others since she was a small child growing up in Nurpur Bedi, a small town in India. She was intrigued when she saw the same nurse every day dressed in her white uniform, wearing a nurse’s cap, walking to work. Rana knew she wanted to be part of the nursing profession.
Educated at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMC), and earning her BSN program at the Post Graduate Institute and Hospital (PGI), Rana worked in India for 10 years before she and her husband moved to the United States in April 1996.
After settling into life in the U.S., she passed the LVN exam and worked for a year and a half at a nursing home. In 2000, she passed the NCLEX with a goal to work at an acute care facility. Attending a recruiting event at Kaiser Permanente, she was interviewed, hired, and accepted a position at Davis Medical Offices. In 2002 she began working at the Sacramento Medical Center where she remains today.
With pride, Rana articulates why her patients are very special to her. “Each patient is unique and presents a different set of problems and illness,” she says. “We have to listen carefully to what their needs are, ask them how their day went, and let them verbalize their feelings. That’s part of our job,” she says with conviction. Rana even lets her patients know when she’s taking a break or going to lunch. When she returns, she checks on them.
“It’s more than administering meds; you have to look at the whole picture. You have to give care from your heart,” Rana says.
Down the line, Rana says she might consider a leadership role, but for now it’s all about her patients.
“Nursing is very fulfilling,” she says.