Rowshanak Forghani, Certified Nurse, ICU, Reston Hospital, lives the mantra: Care Like Family
For Rowshanak “Rowshi” Forghani, working as a nurse for the past ten years at Reston Hospital has been the opportunity she will never take for granted. Rowshi grew up, received her Bachelor’s Degree, and had been an ICU nurse in Iran for several years when she and her family left the country to protect themselves from further abuse and oppression. She studied 16-18 hours a day for six months in order to pass all of the US work visa eligibility requirements, including education requirements, English language proficiency, the NCLEX-RN exam, nursing license and a US employer/sponsor. Rowshi was one of the three individuals in the pool of 500 who received a work visa.
After working in London, England and Harlem, New York, she moved closer to her husband’s family in Virginia and joined Reston Hospital in 2015. Always with a passion for critical care nursing, she worked in the medical unit, then PCU, earned her CCRN (Critical Care Registered Nurse) certification and finally joined the ICU a few years ago.
“I have always wanted to work in a place where diversity is welcome, where you have autonomy and are valued for your education and experience. We have a mutual respect for each other and patient safety is my priority, our priority,” said Rowshi.
She reminisced about a female PCU patient in her 40s from several years ago who originally had been ruled out for a heart attack, but later felt her chest pain symptoms had changed. After listening to her patient and evaluating her new symptoms, Rowshi called in all her physician resources, did an EKG, and even called the code herself, convinced her patient was having a heart attack. That patient ended up receiving two stents for two blocked arteries and Rowshi thinks about that patient regularly.
“I take care of my patients like they are my family. Nursing is not easy. You get tired and overwhelmed sometimes, but the mantra I always repeat in my head is ‘How do you want your family to be treated?’ and that’s what keeps me going,” she shared.