Faith, Purpose, and a New Beginning

Meet graduate Arthur Flores

A few years ago, Arthur Flores never imagined he’d be working in a surgical ICU. He was a mortgage loan officer —
earning good money but feeling unfulfilled and tied up with constant pressure and long hours.

Everything changed after helping a friend finance a new home. His friend had just become a CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist) and described nursing as meaningful, balanced, and deeply human work. “It sounded like exactly what I wanted,”
Flores said. So, in 2022, he enrolled at Jackson College and began his nursing prerequisites.

Starting over wasn’t easy — expired credits and a demanding program meant rebuilding from the ground up. Midway through, he struggled through a divorce. School became his anchor, and through clinicals and an externship at Henry Ford, he rediscovered his faith. In April, he was confirmed in the Catholic Church, a milestone he hadn’t expected when he began.

TRUSTING HIS INSTINCTS TO SAVE A LIFE

After graduating and passing the NCLEX, Flores went to work in the surgical ICU at Henry Ford Jackson Hospital. He cares for some of the
most critical patients — open heart surgeries, trauma cases, car crashes, gunshot wounds, and severe falls.

Flores credits JC’s faculty for high standards that shaped him into a confident nurse. In addition to his nursing knowledge, faculty urged students to “trust their gut” if they sense something may be wrong — better to take a chance that it’s nothing than to miss something. That proved lifesaving one morning not long ago. It was about 6:30 a.m., near shift change, when he noticed something subtle about a patient that didn’t feel right.

“I checked the morning labs and saw a huge jump in one value,” he recalled. “I messaged the provider and the day nurse. They sent him for a stat CT, and he went to emergency surgery that morning.” The decision very likely saved the patient’s life.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE WAS THE RIGHT START

“You don’t need to start with a four-year degree,” he emphasized. “Get your ADN, start working, get experience, and finish your BSN with tuition reimbursement.”

Looking back, Flores is grateful for every twist — career change, personal challenges and renewed faith.