Inspired by patients’ parents, this pediatric ICU nurse is taking his career further
There’s sacrificing to lose 40 pounds. To train for a marathon. To save for a new car.
And then there’s sacrificing 100% for years to care for your chronically ill child. Witnessing that kind of sacrifice is so powerful Kelvin Gray gets misty-eyed just talking about it.
“Parenting is hard, and that’s even if everything is perfect with your kid,” said Gray, a Texas Children’s Hospital pediatric intensive care unit nurse. “Chronic illness is next level.”
The “absolutely dedicated” parents he sees — combined with his own desire to do his best for his patients — recently inspired the San Jacinto College alumnus to make a big sacrifice himself.
Brick wall
Always drawn to health care, Gray enrolled in San Jac’s associate degree nursing program in 2012.
Like most other nursing school newbies, he felt confident until he hit the “brick wall” — the knowledge gap that even science classes didn’t prepare him for.
“Your nursing instructors force you to work, force you to think,” he said. “They give you nothing for free, but they guide you. Once you start overcoming the challenges brick by brick, that’s when your confidence builds.”
Once you start overcoming the challenges brick by brick, that’s when your confidence builds.
Gray knew nursing would be a solid career, so when nursing classes proved to be “hard as hell,” he showed himself to be just as tough.
“The students who come from San Jac are more prepared from my experience,” he said.
Diverse nursing career
After graduating from San Jac in 2014, Gray enjoyed an “extremely diverse” career. For five years, he worked in everything from intermediate care to the emergency room.
During the pandemic, he transitioned to travel nursing nationwide. The deaths he experienced in those two years eclipsed everything he’d experienced in the previous five.
“After nursing school, that was the greatest challenge I faced in my entire career emotionally and mentally,” Gray said. “I shed the most tears with families during that time.”
Eventually he returned to Houston, where he landed his current role at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Nursing school round two
“It’s much more serious, critical, and emotional working with pediatrics. Everyone around you is in school, trying,” he said. “There’s a lot to learn, and you want to do better for your patients.”
Gray had never envisioned round two of nursing school. But to advance his career and better serve his patients, he enrolled in San Jac’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in August 2023. His schedule reverted to “books and work,” with social outings taking a raincheck for 12 months.
“Nursing school definitely makes you choose,” he said.
But Gray knew the long-term rewards were worth short-term sacrifices. On the plus side, he could do the 100% online classes at his own pace and fit them around his work schedule.
“They find a way to integrate your work experience,” he said. “It never felt like you were on the brink of not being successful. They make it extremely possible for you to make it.”
This past December, he completed his BSN degree exactly 10 years after his associate degree.
Wisdom in persevering
When Gray thinks of dedication, he pictures one patient’s father. The police officer, a single dad, showed up consistently at the hospital to lift his 20-year-old, 140-pound son from the bed to a bedside chair to do exercises together.
“Just witnessing the sacrifice, him putting his life to the side, it gives me a lot of patience to deal with anything that may challenge me as a nurse,” he said.
Gray carries this image of dedication in his mind as he pursues his next goal: a doctorate in psychiatric mental health nursing. As a future nurse practitioner, he wants to help patients navigate mental health disorders that impact physiological disorders.
Until then, he continues to encourage new and future nurses to make wise decisions now to reap the rewards later: “You can accomplish a lot if you approach it the right way.”
