Janice Enriquez

Janice Enriquez saw the disapproving looks and heard the whispers, be they from judgy health care providers or strangers passing by.

Can you believe that — a baby having a baby? What a shame.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Enriquez’s own doctor couldn’t keep from piling on, coldly telling the then 15-year-old, “You know, based on statistics, there’s a good chance you’ll have four kids by the age of 20 and never be a positive contributor to society.”

Such remarks could easily send a soon-to-be teenage mother spiraling into a state of depression. Enriquez, however, somehow managed to channel a different emotion: “I quickly became determined to prove everyone wrong.”

Exactly how? Enriquez wasn’t immediately sure (at least as far as the “positive contributor to society” part was concerned). She would gain clarity, however, in the most unlikely of places and under the most stressful of circumstances: while lying on a hospital bed after an agonizing childbirth.

“When I first went into labor with my daughter, the nurses assigned to me weren’t very nice,” Enriquez says. “They asked me things like, ‘Were you not on birth control?’ At that moment, asking me about birth control wasn’t helpful. Asking me about pain control options or if I had a support person — that would have been more logical.

“I remember crying and being in so much pain. And all those nurses did was tell me to breathe through it.”

One excruciating hour after another passed until a shift change brought Enriquez some much-needed relief in the form of a compassionate night-shift nurse who ordered an epidural.

Some three hours later, Enriquez’s daughter was born. So, too, was the framework of a plan for  Enriquez to fulfill her promise to “prove everyone wrong.”

“The night-shift nurse immediately became my biggest advocate,” she says. “Needless to say, her kindness and caring inspired me to want to work in a field where I, too, could advocate for pregnant teens and/or teen moms.”

Initially, Enriquez figured the best way to do that was as a social worker in her native southern California. First, of course, she would have to overcome the immense challenge of finishing high school while raising a young daughter. Thanks to support from her parents, who provided daytime child care, Enriquez pulled it off.

Then after working for a year following high school, she enrolled at a local junior college, choosing classes that aligned with California’s requirements to be a social worker. However, upon realizing that those classes — many of them science-based — were identical to the prerequisites for earning an associate’s degree in nursing, Enriquez experienced a light-bulb moment: Maybe instead of social work, she was better suited to a career providing the same kind of empathetic care she received in the final hours leading up to her daughter’s birth.

Enriquez went on to earn three associate’s degrees  — liberal arts, sociology, and nursing — from Santa Ana College. From there, she embarked on an inspiring, near two-decade-long journey in which numerous professional and personal accomplishments were matched by nearly as many challenges.

A quick rundown of this journey: Enriquez worked as a registered nurse (mostly in labor and delivery at various Las Vegas-based hospitals); earned an undergraduate nursing degree through an online program; raised a growing family; went through a divorce; and earned a graduate degree to be a certified nurse midwife from Cal State Fullerton (only after committing to weekly commutes between the southern California school and Las Vegas, where she lived and continued to work part time as a nurse).

By this point, Enriquez had proven those doubters wrong many times over. Still, she wanted more. So after finishing her graduate degree at Cal State Fullerton, she immediately returned to school in hopes of achieving yet another goal: earn a doctorate of nursing, which would allow her to enter the world of college academia and help groom the next generation of nurses.

After one semester, though, Enriquez realized the timing wasn’t right and pressed pause. Six years passed before Enriquez finally resumed pursuit of her doctorate in 2021 — only this time she did so at her adopted hometown’s university: UNLV.

Once again, Enriquez encountered more than a few obstacles. And, once again, she overcame them, earning her DNP in 2023. Since then, Enriquez has taught upper-division classes as an assistant professor in residence in UNLV’s School of Nursing. At the same time, she has maintained her work in a private practice as a full-scope certified nurse midwife and women’s health nurse practitioner.

As if that wasn’t enough, Enriquez somehow has found time to volunteer with a slew of community organizations over the years. Among them: the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, the Nevada Cancer Coalition, the Nevada Medical Reserve Corps, and the Las Vegas-based Just One Project.

So much for that stereotype that every teenage mom is destined to become part of a negative statistic — even if her doctor suggests otherwise.

“Last year, when I was making my way to graduation for my DNP, I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirrored window,” Enriquez says. “I stopped and thought, ‘Holy cow, 15-year-old me would never believe that this day was happening — that despite the long odds, here we are, all these years later, still proving everyone wrong.’”

Was there a moment early on that convinced you that you made the right decision to be a nurse?

Once I went into nursing, I knew that at some point I wanted to work with mothers and babies. My nursing instructors in my associate’s program shared with me that to get into a specialty area like labor and delivery, it would be important to have at least a year of experience working in the medical surgical area of nursing. 

So when I finished nursing school, I applied for multiple positions and ended up selecting one in oncology. It was super challenging to work in this area as a new graduate nurse, but I learned how to manage my time, how to hold the hand of a dying person, how to comfort the patient’s loved ones, how to communicate with physicians, and how to hone in on my assessment skills and identify when a patient was declining and needed a higher level of care. 

I cried, I learned, and I knew that even though this was not where I wanted to spend my career, I would be a better nurse for the experience.

What do you remember about your first job as a labor and delivery nurse, which required you to relocate to Las Vegas?

After a year of oncology, it was time for my growing family and I to move. Las Vegas was booming, and I spotted online an opportunity to learn labor and delivery nursing. I immediately applied and was offered the position.

I had no idea what the ride was going to be like, but I learned so much during what ended up being 13 years in labor and delivery. And I got to be a part of someone’s special day every day. 

At the same time, I never abandoned my goal of being a nurse practitioner. So five years after moving to Las Vegas, I returned to school to complete my undergraduate degree in nursing, finishing an online program in about 15 months. 

You had three nursing degrees and were well into your career when you decided to go for your nursing doctorate. Why was that important, and how did you end choosing to do so at UNLV?

After completing midwifery school, I enrolled in a DNP program because I wanted to get into academia. But after the first semester, I realized that my limited midwife experience would prevent me from developing an impactful research project. 

So I returned to my practice for another six years. Fast forward to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I thought about completing my DNP. I started researching different programs and realized it only made sense to apply to UNLV — not only because it’s located in the city where I live, but also because I always wanted to be a Rebel. 

Growing up in southern California, my family would frequently take short trips to Las Vegas. Additionally, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, my dad and I would watch college basketball games, and UNLV was often featured — especially when they won the 1990 national championship. 

So even as a kid, I wanted to attend UNLV. Unfortunately, life circumstances made that an unrealistic goal.

Every doctoral student runs into at least one roadblock along the way. What was one that you encountered, and how did you get around it?

I worked full time while pursuing my DNP at UNLV, and shortly after I started the program, my place of employment and practice specialty changed. I went from working in oncology and breast care back to obstetrics and gynecology. As a result, I had to change my project and my mentor — which made me seriously consider quitting the program.

All of my research was focused on increasing the rates of breast cancer screening for several practices in a large corporation, and now it was all moot. Not only that, but I didn’t have a clue what to select for a new project because I had been away from obstetrics and gynecology for so long.

I was literally back to square one.

Before I could formally drop out of the program, though, I was assigned a new mentor. It was Jennifer Vanderlaan, who chaired my DNP committee. Getting paired with Professor Vanderlaan was truly life changing. She helped me see the importance of completing the DNP and suggested we look at perinatal health in the state of Nevada, as her research is focused on improving this type of care.

I also was lucky to have Susan VanBeuge as part of my committee, and she also provided me with guidance and information about working with Nevada’s frontier and rural communities.

These two faculty members genuinely cared about my success in the program. And their support was especially important when I started to doubt myself after I trekked to 17 different hospitals and birthing facilities throughout the state seeking participation in my research study, only to face rejection time and again.

I remained resilient and persistent, but the system tested both of those attributes. And this project truly pushed me to my limits. However, Professor Vanderlaan continued to provide me with the perspective I needed. She was an amazing mentor, teacher, and coach.

Also, knowing that teaching was one of my career goals, she helped provide me opportunities to be a guest lecturer and shared how she created content for our courses. 

Professors Vanderlaan and Dr. VanBeuge continue to inspire me and serve as great examples of the type of professor I aspire to be. 

What about teaching appealed to you, and how rewarding has it been to be a nursing professor at UNLV?

I have always loved teaching, whether it’s students, new graduates, patients, families, or my own kids.

Nursing students are amazing; they are so curious and excited to learn. They really want to make a difference, and they — like me — all have a story that pushed them into this career choice. 

It’s so rewarding to see them figure out how to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it in the clinical setting. 

You have been involved with numerous local charities, including several that aren’t related to the medical field. Where did this passion for community service come from?

As a kid, my parents would volunteer for various causes and tell us that even if we were unable to give money, our time was just as valuable, if not more so. Because if we didn’t give our time, then the important work we were doing would not get done.

I then passed the same message to my kids, reminding them that people need our help just as much as they need money. 

For me, volunteer work is humbling. It reminds me of the value of my time and the importance of helping community members in need.