Paula Callo

Paula Callo has two back yards ... one behind her home in Midland, Texas, and the other just outside of Cuzco, Peru, in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, where Peruvian Passo ponies roam along the Urambamba, a river which flows into the Amazon. It is said that the Peruvian Passo's gait is so smooth, the rider can read a newspaper on its back, or serve champagne from a tray, something Callo has done with friends on more than one occasion.

To say that Paula Callo loves animals is an understatement. Pictures of her ponies are joined by pictures of a baby Siberian tiger, a full-grown lioness, and all manner of flamingoes, the most prominent of which is Gertrude, a metal sculpture which stands a full three feet in her office. She also has her lucky flamingo-dotted surgical hat which she always wears in the operating room.

To say that she loves her students is an understatement. Every three minutes one of her LVN students peek their head in her door—whether they are there for something as mundane as making a copy, or as complicated as an Obstetrics test question—that they are given the same welcome, "Of course, honey, come in." Sometimes they are just stopping by to say hello because their feelings towards this MC Nursing Instructor are mutual, and they could use a good dose of the positive energy which emanates from her.

Her two lives north and south of the equator seem to complement each  other nicely. In Peru she runs the Peru-American Medical Society with her husband, Dr. Guillermo Callo, and several other physicians who share their time and skills in providing medical services to the area's needy. Together they go on medical missions to perform operations with their mobile operating room, which runs on generators. They have performed safe, sterile operations on patients with cleft palates and punctured bladders. They have inoculated hundreds of children with the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine. "These are people truly in need," Callo says, "they do not have a developed health care system."

She has been teaching in the LVN program at MC for years, but has been a Registered Nurse for decades. She enjoys what she calls the "art of nursing," that personal touch where one life touches another. This happens in many ways for her as a nurse, whether it involves washing a patient's hair or lifting them from a bed into a wheelchair. It also happens in many ways as a teacher, for Ms. Callo wants to impart all aspects of nursing to her students. One of her biggest joys was seeing a male nursing student in the nursery, feeding the newborns with care and confidence. She is explicit with her students, as well, taking the certification requirements for their field very seriously. "I make it real for my students, so they aren't afraid to learn. I teach them how to help a new mom, but I also teach them how to pass their board exams." And considering that the LVN graduating class from this past May has a 100% pass rate, Paula Callo's art is not just kind, but clearly, very smart.