James Hughes was always interested in the medical field, but raising his three children as a single father made the construction industry a practical choice.
He moved to Las Vegas in 1996 and began working primarily on the Las Vegas Strip, helping build iconic landmarks as the Bellagio, the Palms Casino Resort, and Mandalay Bay. Despite the hard labor and long hours, Hughes found those moments beneficial aside from just making a living.
“It taught me good work ethic that my kids learned from,” he says. “They see me work hard every day and come home, go to basketball practice, football practice, PTA meetings, grocery shopping, [just] make sure they were well-rounded kids.
“I want to prove if kids have a good background and parents spend time with them, they can achieve a quality life and higher education.”
It was Hughes’ family who helped propel him into a new career — and UNLV School of Nursing's Accelerated 2nd Degree program that made it possible. When he remarried, Hughes said his wife encouraged him to pursue his healthcare career. Additionally, seeing his children put in long hours to graduate college reinforced the idea that age is just a number.
“As you age, your joints hurt a little bit, but you still got that experience in life to help you with something else,” Hughes explains. “It's like [being] an athlete like Tom Brady. He may not be as sharp and quick as he used to, but he has that knowledge and wisdom from all the experience to do great things and how to lead people better. I've matured to handle heavier loads.”
In pre-COVID times, to qualify for UNLV’s nursing program, he worked night shifts while studying for his pre-requisite classes during the day at UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada. He earned his first bachelor’s degree in urban studies from UNLV and says it offers him a unique background for nursing.
“I will integrate this into my nursing degree to curb homelessness by mental health treatment and physical health treatment [and will] work with city [officials] for overall mental and physical health awareness for a better city and community,” he says.
In fact, he already has his eyes on psychiatric nursing. “I feel like right now with the pandemic, a lot of people need treatment for psychiatric disorders,” Hughes says. “Instead of sending people to prison, we could intervene and treat them psychologically and then put them back in society as productive citizens. As a psych nurse, I could find out the medical problem or the history of that patient and intervene with the help of the doctor and other nurses.”
As Hughes pushes through the 2nd Bach program, he sees parallels to his construction days, particularly in communicating across a team.
“We had such a good crew; we were able to get projects done on time and efficiently,” Hughes recalls. “As a nurse, you have to collaborate with the other nurses and the doctors to make sure the patient is taken care, to make sure everything's done properly.”
Though he’s new to healthcare, Hughes already recognizes the value of treating patients like they were his loved ones. “When I talk to patients, I think, ‘This could be my mom, this could be my dad.’ This is somebody's mom and dad or wife or husband, so I need to make sure I give them the same care that I would give my own parents.”
