Bridging the Gap: One Nurse’s Journey to Advocate for Patients
Carlos Hernandez-Rivera remembers sitting beside his parents at doctor’s appointments, listening carefully as physicians explained diagnoses, medications, and next steps. For his parents—both immigrants whose first language isn’t English—those visits could feel confusing and overwhelming. For Carlos, they became something else: a calling.
“My mother and dad are both immigrants, so they both came to this country without knowing English,” he said. “So I am a big advocate for them when they go to primary care.”
Those early experiences shaped the way Carlos thinks about healthcare, and the kind of nurse he wanted to be. In December, he graduated from UNC Charlotte with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and recently passed his RN boards. He’s now preparing to begin his new role as a registered nurse in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital.
Support along the way helped make that milestone possible. Carlos received tuition assistance with the Armed Reserves as well as Atrium Health, where he works. The combined support helped ease the financial burden of finishing his degree.
“It means so much to me,” he said. “It’s so meaningful because these employers care about you and they care about you succeeding and growing.”
For Carlos, that kind of investment reinforced the idea that education, and healthcare, are strongest when institutions support the people doing the work.
As he steps into the profession, Carlos is already thinking about the bigger impact he hopes to make. To him, the issue isn’t just about access to care. It’s also about understanding: making sure patients feel confident asking questions, understanding instructions, and advocating for their own health. That challenge is especially visible in communities where language barriers exist.
“Especially in the Hispanic community where there’s a language barrier, I want to advocate for them,” he said.
Having grown up helping his parents navigate doctor’s visits, Carlos understands how confusing healthcare can feel for people without medical knowledge or language support. That experience drives his desire to use his training to bridge that gap, so patients and families don’t have to feel lost when making decisions about their health.
Carlos’ education at UNC Charlotte helped prepare him not only for the technical aspects of nursing, but also for the broader role nurses play in supporting communities. One class in particular, community nursing, helped reinforce that perspective.
“It gives you the bigger aspect,” he said. “It’s not just you in a hospital. Nursing involves this whole community of people around you.”
Outside the classroom, Carlos also stepped into leadership roles. As vice president of the student nursing association, he worked with fellow students and faculty to organize volunteer opportunities and outreach efforts.
“The base of our club is giving back to the community,” he said. “I think that is such a big backbone of a future nurse.”
Like many nursing students, Carlos balanced a demanding schedule while completing the program. His weeks included classes, clinical rotations at hospitals beginning early in the morning, part-time work as a nursing assistant in a neonatal intensive care unit, and service in the Army Reserve as a dental assistant.
“It was a lot of time management,” he said.
Despite the challenges, Carlos says the support he received from UNC Charlotte’s School of Nursing made a lasting impact.
“Very supportive faculty, very knowledgeable,” he said. “You can tell these people were specifically picked out for their positions.”
Now, as he begins working with critically ill children and their families, Carlos sees his first nursing role as only the beginning. Looking ahead, he hopes to return to UNC Charlotte to pursue a Master of Science in Nursing and become a family nurse practitioner focused on primary care.
His goal is simple but powerful: to ensure that patients, especially those navigating language barriers, feel heard, understood, and supported.
“I just hope to fill in that gap one day for someone,” he said.
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