Nathaly Garces

First, my mom, who inspired me to do better. She is a nurse back home in Colombia, so she's the one who's always helping patients and trying to see the solution for anything, and she always said, like, there is always a solution for things. So I attribute my success to my mom. She taught me to always find solutions and help others, which is exactly what I do in my work every day with my patients.

I remember one of the ladies, a Puerto Rican woman, told me back in 2008 when I came to America and didn't know how to speak English, that I always find a solution for things, just like my mom. She told me to find a solution for things, go to Google, never take a no for an answer, and always try to see how you can make it happen. If it's something that's gonna help other ones, just try to find a solution, and you're always gonna find a solution for things. When she told me that, I thought, oh, that's what my mom used to tell me. I always remember that whenever I do something, I always think about her.

I would say that, first you have to have passion about the things that you do. Think about doing it because it's something that'll drive you. Every time you wake up in the morning, you want to make sure you feel like it's not a job, but it's more like you're helping and impacting other people's lives. That's how I find my motivation. I don't see what I'm doing every day as a job, but it's more like people's lives changing. Patients tell me every day, like, Natalie, thank you so much. They write letters to me, they write messages, they even give me gifts and things like that. But I do it with my heart. You have to do it with passion and have compassion for those who might be having a bad day. Sometimes they'll tell me, oh, you made my day, and I can't believe you were being very patient, or very kind to me. I think about it like I'm talking to my mom, and I'm talking to someone close to me. That's why they always think that I'm so close to them, and when I ask them to do things that we have to do for services and things like that, they're always willing to do it because of how I talk to them. I guess that's what makes me different.

Sometimes, when things change, like the insurance and patients cannot get coverage, that's a big challenge. We're dealing with a lot of patients who are very sensitive, especially with everything that's going on on the immigration side, so they're worried about what's gonna happen next. I always try to come up with a solution, but in this case, because it's out of my hands, that's a challenge that I'm facing right now. DC Medicaid is changing, and I'm thinking about what are the other options that I can come up with on my own that won't affect our patients. It's a challenge because it's out of my control.

I would say, having respect for others, no matter who they are, from all the way from the lady who cleans to the CEO. That's what my father and my mom used to tell me all the time. Think about, like, when you talk to other people, to just have really high respect, and be mindful that people are going through a lot of stuff in life. You want to make a difference, you want to be the light. Always when you walk into a room, my mom used to tell me, you want to be a light. You don't want to bring darkness to other people's lives. And also, the tone when you speak matters. You don't want to sound really impulsive, or like you're trying to tell people you have to do this, but you're more like, oh, yeah, this is the way to do it. That's what my values are, and especially since I was raised by my mom and my dad, my mom is a Christian, so that's what my values are rooted in.