Scrubs

A tough road to nursing school: Niaz Farzadfar’s story

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Her mother recalls that Niaz demonstrated stamina and commitment during those trying days. “She took good care of her father and didn’t get tired. She loves nursing, like me; she likes helping people.” Niaz returns the compliment: “One of my motivations to become a great nurse is my mother. The passion she has for her job has made me realize how important it is to love your career.”

A year after her father’s death, Niaz started nursing school. “It was more of a coping mechanism, really. I dealt with patients last year who had cancer—I found myself doing things for these patients that I had done for my dad, but now I saw it in a different light.” In conversation, Niaz downplays the poetic justice of having left Iran to seek religious freedom and ending up in a Catholic school. She chose to attend Mount St. Mary’s because, as she explains, the classes are smaller than the typical community-college nursing classes and students get more one-on-one attention. To pay for this education, she explains proudly, she has taken out loans so as not to burden her mother with the high price of tuition. She chose the BSN degree because it “brings in more elements than just the medical care, such as bioethics, philosophy, history.” For someone who plans to eventually earn an MSN and become a nurse practitioner, it’s a logical first step.

The campus, nestled in the Santa Monica Mountains and featuring picturesque views of the Getty Museum, west Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean, could be distracting to a less-than-serious student. Niaz’s focus is impressive, whether in the classroom, the skills lab or the library, where she spends several hours on some days, studying between classes. Assistant professor and Skills Lab Coordinator Judy Ontiveros describes her as a “wonderful student” who passed a re-demonstration of skills assessment on the first attempt. Still, it’s not only serious business. In the lab, Niaz’s youthfulness shows. When a computer-controlled simulation robot used as an educational tool makes a vomiting noise, she reflexively giggles.

David Blumenkrantz
David Blumenkrantz’s professional experience includes an eight-year stint doing documentary work and freelancing in Africa, where he traveled extensively covering a wide variety of relief and development-related social issues. He ran a photography training course for Eritrean freedom fighters in Asmara, and spent more than two years running an information department for the Undugu Society of Kenya, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for street children and the urban poor. Upon his return to the United States in 1994, Blumenkrantz worked for the Los Angeles Times and various other publications as a freelance photojournalist. In 2004 he joined the journalism department faculty at California State University, Northridge, where he teaches documentary journalism and photojournalism.

    Niaz Farzadfar photo gallery

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