Vanguard nursing graduate dispenses peace of mind
It’s an introduction you don’t hear every day.
“I’m surprised to share my story,” said Richard Moorehead while standing before Vanguard University’s class of 2016 nursing graduates during their pinning ceremony Thursday morning. “When I was a teenager, a family friend’s daughter was becoming a nurse and I thought, ‘Who would want to be a nurse?’
“But I saw how doctors and nurses worked so hard, and in these classes we all understood each other and what we were going through. Of course, we helped each other — we’re nurses.”
The student speaker addressing his fellow graduates at the campus’ Newport Mesa Church in Costa Mesa never suspected that he would head back to school at age 50 to obtain a bachelor of science in nursing.
Having already completed his RN license, Moorehead, of Laguna Niguel, worked as an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse for 23 years. He now is the ICU supervisor at Saddleback Memorial in Laguna Hills.
He attended Vanguard to earn his nursing degree, which he completed in December.
What he dispenses to patients is nearly as valuable as any medication or surgical procedure. It’s peace of mind, from someone who’s been there.
Four months before completing his degree from Vanguard, Moorehead started feeling abdominal pains. He thought the cramps were stress-related or from drinking too much coffee, but the aches progressed.
That November, he saw a gastroenterologist who prescribed him an antibiotic.
The prescription didn’t resolve the pain.
A month later, Moorehead underwent a colonoscopy, a procedure that allows a doctor to look at the lining of the colon for signs of cancer.
His doctor informed him that he had adenocarcinoma of the colon, the most common form of colon cancer that has the potential to spread to other parts of the body.
“It was the most surreal moment of my life,” Moorehead said. “Everything stopped. I was in this fog.”
He returned to work that day, he said, “To get back in nurse mode.”
After one surgery and a discovery of cancer-free lymph nodes, Moorehead — who lost his mother, two uncles and grandfather to cancer — was on his way to recovery.
And that would come with the help from his Vanguard classmate and friend, Marthasella Francisco, who became his post-surgery nurse at Saddleback Memorial.
Moorehead, who has since returned to work, said having been a patient in a hospital helps him understand how patients, family members and friends may feel scared or uncertain.
He said he applies a calm composure to anyone who arrives at the nurses’ station.
“I had this overwhelming feeling that it was going to work out,” Moorehead said. “I feel incredibly blessed.”
Thursday’s ceremony celebrated 40 nursing graduates with a pin containing two symbols — the Florence Nightingale Lamp and the Christian cross. The piece was chosen by the inaugural group of students enrolled in the RN to BSN program at Vanguard in 2006.
The private Christian university’s nursing program, which launched 10 years ago, has helped nurses find work at Orange County hospitals.
“It becomes a big supportive family here,” said Mary Wickman, director of Vanguard’s nursing program. “Nurses are wonderful people.”
