Joshua Garcia already had a reputation for going above and beyond to help his team during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the respiratory care practitioner’s efforts reached another level in April, when he responded to a staff shortage by taking on various roles during the day, directed the workflow and staffing needs, responded to emergency calls, and performed three tracheostomy weaning procedures on patients, among other tasks. “That day we had not enough people to do the work we had to do,” Garcia recalled. “We had emergencies come up, we had other things to cover. I helped to coordinate the care of our patients. For me it was really about the teamwork.” While the staff in 500P is exceptional, nominator Anthony Odili, a respiratory therapy supervisor, said Garcia’s outstanding efforts on that intense day made all the difference.
“On any workday, Joshua Garcia exemplifies teamwork. I have seen him consistently help respiratory staff members in different patient care units and deliver respiratory care in a patient-centered manner. He is compassionate, caring and he always exudes a positive disposition to work,” Odili said.
“At the start of the shift, he took a workload at the pulmonary function lab of the Outpatient Clinic and provided quality care to patients there,” Odili said. “At approximately 1200 hours, when the patient needs had subsided there, Joshua returned to the Inpatient unit and assumed Respiratory Resource RT duties. In this capacity, he directed the respiratory treatment workflow and staffing needs of the department, responded to diverse calls including performing three tracheostomy weaning procedures on patients, responded to calls from the Cancer Center, attended and assisted in numerous rapid response calls and emergencies, and led the respiratory team to deliver exceptional care to patients.”
Garcia lives in San Jose and has worked for Stanford Health Care for 18 years, he said. He started right after graduation from Foothill College because, as a student, he was impressed by the diversity of patients and the skills he could learn at Stanford’s trauma-level hospital.
What’s kept him here, he said, is “the people that I work with in our department. The camaraderie, the teamwork that we have has always been very good.” Garcia loves to volunteer with his church and is leaving soon with his wife on a mission trip to Mexico and Central America, he said. He appreciates that his Stanford team works with him to pursue that passion as well.
“During COVID, there was such a need here. There were so many patients that were sick, and we were right there on the front line,” Garcia said.
Now, he’s excited to resume his mission trips, and leave on his first one since the pandemic started.