Inspiring the Next Generation of Nurse Practitioners With Dean Elda Ramirez
From the emergency department to the dean’s office, Dr. Ramirez has built her career on advocacy, empathy and impact. This Hispanic Heritage Month, she shares the “superpower” that continues to guide her leadership journey.
When Elda Ramirez, PhD, FNP-BC, ENP-BC, FAAN, FAANP, FAEN, was named dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) in Laredo, Texas, the honor was more than a new, prestigious post — it was a return home. “I grew up in a neighborhood called El Azteca here,” she says. While attending a Catholic private high school, she also became a junior volunteer in the emergency department at a regional hospital. “I got to experience a lot in the ‘70s. It was a very different climate, right? I found the love for emergency at that time.” Ramirez left Laredo for Houston, and in 1988 she graduated from nursing school.
While Ramirez says she “loved what I was doing,” she felt something was missing. “I just was not satisfied. I wanted to do more. I ended up learning about a profession called the nurse practitioner (NP). Back in those days, it wasn’t sexy to be an NP. It had been around since 1965, but it hadn’t really started hitting the academic centers until then.” Ramirez had embarked on a career that wasn’t especially well known in a field where NPs were still beginning to make their mark. Years later, she would fight to make a place for herself and her NP colleagues.
Inspiring the Next Generation
Ramirez is approaching her charge as dean knowing that she is a role model for students, especially the university’s Hispanic students. Ramirez remembers that when she was growing up in Laredo, she didn’t think much about race and instead was more aware of socioeconomics. “In Laredo, the majority of people around me were Hispanic…I mean, I didn’t know I was different. I had no idea I was Mexican. When I moved to Houston, my first roommate was this tiny little girl who happened to be Caucasian. And she's like, ‘Oh my God, you're Mexican. You don't have an accent.’ And I remember thinking, ‘Accent?’ I couldn't correlate to what she was saying. I guess because my first language was Spanish, but I spoke English my whole life. That was one of the first things that made me realize that I wasn't like whatever other people were. I mean, in my community, in my culture, it was more hierarchical.”
Later, while Ramirez was working to achieve her doctorate, she began to see her status as a Hispanic professional in a new light. “That's when I really understood a lot more about the disparity and the stigma, because I started really analyzing the data, and realized I was one of one three-hundredth percent of Hispanic nurses with a PhD. That's when I really started understanding that I had a responsibility for my ethnicity, in that I needed to be a role model. I didn't grow up poor. That's not my MO. My MO is that I happen to be a Mexican American female, who grew up on the border, is educated — and my race and ethnicity has nothing to do with my capacity to be a phenomenal educator, dean and NP.”
Leading the Change
When asked about changes to practice over the years, Ramirez explains, “Health care is changing. The utilization of advanced practice nurses is changing. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners® (AANP) is changing, and its focus is becoming way more user-friendly, and becoming member-focused to the point where every single specialty, every single need, is coming directly from our mothership, which is AANP.” Despite the advances made for NPs and patients in health care, Ramirez is still keenly aware of the work that lies ahead for the next generation of NPs. Her words of encouragement for students embarking on their NP journeys is a passionate charge: “Don’t settle. Keep fighting. Want more? Be the one that asks why.”
If this new generation is to lead the way forward for NP care, they have to, “Be the one that doesn't follow the status quo. Be the one that wants more. Be the one that says that is unacceptable. I cannot tell you how difficult that is because I did it in my time when I was coming up. I wasn't really popular, I got in a lot of trouble, and I got turned away from a lot of places. But you know, look at what I was able to accomplish. I did some cool things, and I've got other people maintaining what I started — and that's brilliant.”
For Ramirez, her advocacy is always anchored by her dedication to patient care. “I always tell my students —every single patient you care for, you have to consider them as family. Because how would you want your family members to be treated? So, that's a huge one for me. You must show a tremendous amount of respect and dignity to the patient. But as an individual, you need to keep fighting. Don’t take ‘That's the way we've always done it’ as the answer, you know?”
Channeling One’s NP Superpowers
Ramirez is quick to add that, as a professional, she focuses on being an NP first and foremost. “Being Hispanic is beautiful. I love it. It's me. It's who I am. But it's not what I am in my profession.” With that dedication to the NP role in mind, she adds, “I have a responsibility in my education and my knowledge base to make sure that all NPs — no matter their background — are aware of their personal biases and do not impose that bias on their patient, period. That's about caring for humans and having respect for where they're from and who they are.”
Later, she sums it all up: “Am I a role model now? Hopefully, if somebody sees me that way and says, ‘Oh wow, she's done all these things and she's really kind of cool, and she happens to be Mexican American,’ that's cool. But honestly, do I have superpowers because I'm Mexican? No. I have superpowers because I'm a nurse practitioner, and I'm me.”
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