Lissette Gutierrez, a registered nurse who manages four multispecialty clinics for UHealth – the University of Miami Health System, was nominated to speak at the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies Summer 2025 Graduate Awards. According to faculty, Gutierrez demonstrated outstanding leadership, unwavering commitment to excellence, and remarkable resilience in the Master of Science in Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner program. A registered nurse for over 20 years, including 10 of those as a charge nurse, Gutierrez is a certified pediatric emergency nurse and certified ambulatory nurse. In 2015, she was Baptist Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department Magnet Nurse of Year. Then in 2020, she received a DAISY Award from Broward Health Imperial Point for her outstanding patient care in the COVID unit. She already held a master’s degree in nursing leadership and a successful position as an RN Flow manager with UHealth when she chose to pursue her M.S.N. degree at the U. The story she shared in her August 1 address was one of inspiration, courage, and character. The following is a lightly edited transcript of that speech.
Good morning. Thank you for the kind introduction, Dean Santos. When our program director, Dr. Yhovana Gordon, notified me I’d been nominated to speak today, the first thing I did was text my family. They all said, “Yes, do it!” But I’ll be honest. Public speaking is one of my biggest fears and then I thought, if I can get through this nurse practitioner program, I can do anything.
I want to reflect on my nursing journey and what this program did for me, and really for us. We each have our own journey that led us here. Mine started in 2003, when I graduated from Miami Dade College’s nursing program. That was the proudest day of my life. I began working in the neonatal intensive care unit, then went to the pediatric emergency room at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, and that’s where I learned to be a “real” nurse. Years of bedside took a toll on me, and in 2012 I had my first back surgery. It scared me enough to finally step out of my comfort zone and then earn my B.S.N. at Barry University. In 2017 I had another back surgery. And then months out, I wondered if I’d ever return to the job I loved. But with therapy and determination I came back stronger.
In 2019, I took another leap into the world of adults, and five months later COVID happened, and my unit became a COVID floor. That was my crash course in life, loss, and resilience, and it reminded me that nursing is about courage in the face of the unknown. And that experience is what led me to getting my master’s in nursing leadership and to this nursing practitioner program.
When my coworker first encouraged me to apply, I didn’t think I’d get accepted. I didn’t think I was smart enough. It had been years since I’d been in school. I was working full time. But I said yes. I loved our classes. Our professors made the hardest topics come alive. I looked forward to every class Dr. Juan Gonzalez spoke and taught. He made pathophysiology fascinating. He broke down cells, immunity, and his stories were top-notch.…
And how can you forget simulation with Dr. Michelle Arollo and Dr. Amauri Quintana! Those sim classes were very fun! How lucky did some of us get to have Dr. Patricia Larrieu Jimenez from our Health Assessment class until the very end, and have her guide us through clinical reasoning with real-life scenarios that helped us think like providers.
I loved learning to think like a provider. The semesters were flying by, and before I knew it, it was the end of the fall semester. This is where I may get a little emotional. This is when I lost my father—the man who taught me the value of family—and at the end of the spring semester, I lost my sister.
Those were the hardest days of my life. I wanted to give up. But this program, this community, became my anchor. It gave me purpose when everything felt uncertain. And then in a full-circle moment, I realized why I was still here in the program. In my father’s and my sister’s final moments, it was nurse practitioners who showed up. They did the follow-ups. They ordered the labs. They came to the house. They provided the home care. And they made sure we understood the plan. They called me every day to set up appointments. They reminded me why I chose this path to be an advanced practice nurse, to treat every person with dignity and empathy, and to care.
As alone as I felt at times, I did not walk this road alone. My classmates shared their notes with me, their study groups pulled me through the hardest weeks when I was not motivated, their exam-day pep talks gave me confidence.
And of course, my family—my daughter, you are my inspiration, the kindest soul; my mother, the angel on earth; my sister Luly, my brother Israel, Angelina, everyone. You are the most amazing family I could ever ask for, and I couldn’t have done this without you.
To my coworkers who can’t be here, thank you for your patience when I was tired, stressed, cranky, and not at work, like today. And to my professors and preceptors, thank you for believing in me, even when I doubted myself.
To my classmates, thank you for being my village. Today, I stand here a proud ’Cane, a proud nurse practitioner, and a proud representative of every single one of us who chose to take this step. We did it. We stepped out of our comfort zones. And if we can do this, we can do anything! Thank you.
