Juncel Arpon never considered himself an adrenaline (read: chaos) junkie, but ...
Arpon, night shift charge nurse at UTMB Health’s League City Hospital Campus Emergency Department, enjoys working in the ER because of the fast pace and the quick turnover of patients–something many people find chaotic and uncomfortable.
"In the ER, you might get your patient for two or three hours, and then you either send them home or send them to the floor or the ICU,” Arpon said. “You get to see a lot of different cases, a lot of different patients. It's chaos for a lot of people, but I actually enjoy that.
“The moment I step in the ER, I feel like my mindset kind of changes,” he said. “Maybe I do thrive on chaos outside of work too and never really evaluated myself in that way. But I know for sure when I'm at work, it just clicks, and I know it's going to be crazy. But 12 hours is 12 hours, and somehow we find a way to get it done.”
But even someone who thrives on the fast pace and unpredictability of an ER can find it stressful. Arpon rates the stress level of an ER nurse’s job at four out of five.
“I can’t even imagine what a five out of five would be,” he said.
But his team helps mitigate that stress.
“In the ER, you have your doctors right there; you have, for the most part, the resources you need to take care of the patients. It's always a team effort there, and you know you're never alone. It's all hands on deck when someone is really sick, so knowing that kind of doesn't make me worry too much about the stress.”
Being able to talk to his fellow ER nurses about cases helps as well, especially knowing that they’re going through the same thing.
“And also at home, you know, thankfully, my wife, Anjouli, is also a nurse, although not in the ER. When I come home, I really don't talk about my day that much until later on. When I get home, I just want to relax and not think about it. And then, when I'm ready, I talk about it to my wife. We can talk about these things whenever we're ready to talk about them. But mostly, I try not to think about work when I'm not there.”
On the clock or off, there’s plenty to think about–some things more poignant than others. And whether they’re expressed or not, emotions can run rampant in the ER. Patients can range from “a person trying to fight you to a sweet old lady who just fell because she was walking her dog,” Arpon said.
The hardest thing is having to accompany an ER doctor to tell family members that someone close to them has died, especially when it’s unexpected, he said. When that happens, he said, time stands still. The chaos comes to a halt, and he’s forced to pause, to be in that moment.
“It kind of resets me emotionally,” he said. “It makes you think about things in general, it gives you a perspective on life and makes you appreciate life in general, knowing that this moment could happen to your loved ones personally.
“It makes you want to live life to the fullest,” he added. “I know that sounds really cheesy, but telling someone they've lost somebody always makes you think about your own life.”
For all the stress and the challenges ER nurses encounter, there’s joy to be had in their shifts, as well. Arpon said a high point of his day is when the ER waiting room is finally cleared out.
It almost sounds as if he’s making a good-natured joke. But there’s more to it than just an oasis of calm in the chaos.
An empty ER lobby means the staff has done its job. They’ve gotten everyone who needs to be admitted up to their rooms. They’ve treated those who could be treated on the spot. They’ve rerouted others to wherever it was they needed to go. It means work well done... even if it only lasts a moment and chaos returns when the ambulance bay doors burst open with burn victims and accident survivors, when bereft parents show up with feverish infants and toddlers with beads stuck up their noses.
"I know it sounds kind of cliche for a nurse to say, ‘Oh, I'm doing this because I get to help people.’ But truly, I really am satisfied that I get to touch this many people's lives in a way,” Arpon said. “You know, half the time there are ER patients who aren't really that sick. Sometimes they're just there because they're scared, they don't know what's going on.
“But just knowing that I can take care of that patient and the next one I go to could be a life-threatening situation and knowing that I can go to different patients and still give them the care that they need … that's very satisfying to me. It’s joyful to me knowing that I can take care of all of these patients.”
Arpon doesn’t know where his career will take him. He’s happy in the ER, he said, but he understands that the physicality of the job might make it more of a challenge as he gets older. He did a three-month stint as clinical operations supervisor at the League City Campus when the regular clinical operations administrator was on maternity leave.
“I enjoyed that,” he said. “You’re the administrator; you basically run the hospital. You coordinate a lot of different things, get the resources that everyone needs.
“It’s still a kind of chaos,” he said. “In a way it's a little bit more organized, I guess, but it's still chaos.”
More about Juncel Arpon
Age: 31
How long as an ER nurse: 10 years
How long at UTMB: 6 years, since the League City Hospital Campus ER opened
What do you do in your down time?
“My wife and I like to travel a lot. We like to go to places we've never been. We like eating out, enjoying a good meal at a restaurant here and there. Hanging out with our dogs. I think most
of our time outside of work really is hanging with the dogs, Hooper and Coffee. Our dogs basically are our children. We have two of them, so they are a handful sometimes.”
Who are your heroes?
“I look up to my family a lot. We're a pretty family-oriented group. I guess I look up mainly to my mom. Career wise, both my mom and my grandmother are nurses. And I think, honestly, that's the main reason
why I'm a nurse. So, I'd say they're both my main heroes. My grandma, Imelda Rodriguez, worked for UTMB forever. My mom, Cecile Arpon, was a nurse for a long time also.”
Top photo: League City ER’s night charge nurse, Juncel Arpon, is pictured with his wife, Anjouli, and fur babies, Hooper, left, and Coffee. (All photos provided by Juncel Arpon.)
