Originally published May 8, 2015
By Laura L. Acosta
UTEP News Service
When he was a child, Sergio Soto spent hours at the arcade playing video games with his older brother Armando Soto.
As his big brother showed him how to navigate Pac Man through a maze of dots, Sergio Soto felt he could overcome any obstacle, or goblin, that crossed his path.
Today, the Soto brothers are spending quality time together in the undergraduate nursing program at The University of Texas at El Paso’s School of Nursing.
Sergio Soto, 37, will graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from UTEP on May 16. Armando Soto, 49, a licensed vocational nurse (LVN) for 22 years, expects to graduate in December 2015.
“I really look up to him a lot,” Sergio Soto said about his brother. “He really is a role model. He’s caring, passionate, knowledgeable and unselfish. It’s great to see that in an individual, especially in the nursing field where you have to be 100 percent unselfish.”
In addition to sharing a passion for nursing, both brothers put their education on hold when life events changed their plans.
Family obligations postponed Sergio Soto’s plan to become a nurse until 2013 when he started the BSN program at UTEP.
When he wasn’t doing homework with his five-year-old daughter, Brisa, Sergio Soto served as president of the Texas Student Nurses Association and organized food, blanket and toy drives and community health fairs. He also represented the UTEP School of Nursing at the National Student Nurse Association’s annual convention for two consecutive years.
“It would be selfish of me to just go to class and not give back to the community,” Sergio Soto said. “UTEP has a lot of great aspects and it’s doing so much for the community, and we as students have to realize that we’re the next generation. If we don’t give back, who will?”
Since starting his nursing career as a licensed vocational nurse in the Army, Armando Soto worked in hospitals, nursing homes, and home health and correctional centers for nearly 20 years. Then he decided it was time to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree.
He started the BSN program at UTEP a semester after Sergio Soto entered nursing school.
“When I went to nursing school 20 years ago to get my LVN, it was a breeze,” recalled Armando Soto, who graduated from the licensed vocational nurse program at Pacific Coast College in San Diego in 1983. “I never picked up a book to study. But this time that I’m in school, a lot of things have changed because now they use evidenced-based practice teaching. They’re teaching these young nurses about critical thinking.”
“When I went to school it was a task-oriented curriculum,” he added. “They would teach you how to insert Foleys (catheters), how to do wound care, how to do suction. And now it’s more of the ‘why’ we do something and not necessarily the ‘how’ to do something. Everything has a purpose. It should have an expected outcome and a positive outcome for the patient.”
Because of Armando Soto’s extensive nursing background, Sergio Soto has often looked to his big brother for guidance.
“That was the best thing about this,” Sergio Soto said. “Whenever I have a problem and I can’t understand something, I go to my brother and he helps me understand it. He doesn’t just tell me it’s this and that. He says, ‘Well, let’s look at the situation. Why do you think it’s there?’ And he helps me get to the answer.”
Seeing his younger brother in action in the UTEP Center for Simulation has given Armando Soto a sneak peek into Sergio Soto’s future as a nurse.
The Center for Simulation functions as a real-world hospital where students train in real-life scenarios, such as Simulated Hospital Day, in a safe learning environment under the supervision of faculty members.
“I’ve been on the sidelines watching him and I’m very impressed with him,” Armando Soto said. “He’s very smart. He’s very knowledgeable. He picks up material easily.”
The youngest of seven brothers and sisters, Sergio Soto didn’t share his plan to become a nurse with his parents or siblings until after he was in nursing school.
Both brothers laughed when they recalled how, growing up, Sergio Soto became queasy at the sight of blood or other bodily fluids.
“When he had the baby, he’d have trouble changing her diaper,” Armando Soto joked. “My mom said, ‘We’ll see what happens. Just let him go.’”
That first diaper change was Sergio Soto’s first baby step toward a new career and a brighter future for him and his daughter. He overcame his queasiness to work in the intensive care unit at Sierra Medical Center as a Patient Care Technician. After graduation, he will remain in the ICU but will step into the role of new graduate nurse.
“People in the ICU are at their most vulnerable and that’s when they rely most on their nurses and doctors in order for them to get well,” Sergio Soto said. “That makes it more interesting for me. These people who are at their most vulnerable are looking to you for guidance, education and to heal them.”
The Soto brothers hoped to walk at Commencement together in May. However, the final class that Armando Soto must take before graduation will only be offered on Saturdays during the summer when he works as a charge nurse at the Ambrosio Guillen Texas State Veterans Home.
Instead, the Soto brothers look forward to graduating together when they receive their graduate degrees from UTEP to become nurse practitioners.
“I was pleasantly surprised to find a family member that had similar interests in the nursing profession,” said Armando Soto, who is the second-to-oldest sibling. “It sounds like a cliché, but (nursing) really is (rewarding). It’s like some people say, ‘Find a job that you love to do, that way you don’t feel like you’re going to work every day.’”