STAFORD Rowe is not your average guy. At 33 years old, not only is he a married father of four, he is also a nurse in training.

He is currently in the second year of a bachelor of science degree programme in general nursing at Knox Community College in St Ann and is loving every minute of the experience.

“It is a pleasure and life-long dream of mine. At one point, I thought I would not have got the opportunity to start university,” said the married father of four, who is also an avid football player.

Later, he intends to do post-basic courses in intensive care and train as a scrub technician, before pursuing postgraduate work to the level of a PhD.

And he is clear that his career as a nurse will not be all peaches and cream.

“I do expect challenges in good working conditions and limited resources. (But) I really look forward to giving the total patient care,” he told Career & Education.

Meanwhile, Rowe is the first to tell you that there were people, including family members, who were surprised at his choice of career.

“They were all shocked initially, but have come to terms with it, especially my sister Tracy. Each time we happen to see each other, her greeting is ‘me nurse bredda’,” said the man, who has five other siblings.

Still, depite what people may think, he said that his only regret.

“I should have started a long time ago, that is my only regret,” noted the man who, after graduating from high school in 1995, joined the National Youth Service and sought employment.

In 1997, he went back to school to acquire several Caribbean Secondary Education certificate subjects, including social studies, principles of business, mathematics and office procedures. He also sat General Certificate of Education exams in human and social biology and English language before attending Portmore Community College in 2005, where he earned an associate degree of science.

He joined Knox College later, an experience that has to date proven rewarding.

“Apart from the fact that I am furthering my education, we get to travel outside of our immediate school population and visit some hospitals, like Bustamante Hospital for Children and the University Hospital of the West Indies. We see some rare medical cases and get the opportunity to interact with patients,” he told Career & Education.

In short, he is living his dream.

“It is an overwhelming positive response from everyone. Most people just seem to can’t stop gazing and pointing at me. Everybody just calls me nurse,” Rowe said smiling, clearly pleased.

A devout christian man who worships at the Cobbla New Testament Church of God added that his church family is among those who have supported him.

Being placed second by only a point difference in this year’s Lasco/Nurses’ Association of Jamaica Sudent Nurse of the Year competition has been like icing on the cake.

“It’s absolutely surprising and fulfilling, being that it was a one-point separation and me being placed second. I don’t feel any sense of loss. I feel a deep sense of accomplishment to be placed second,” he said.

Rowe noted that his motivation for entering the competition came from attending last year’s award ceremony in support of the then competitor from Knox.

“I came last year with the team and indicated my intentions to enter this year. Our preparation started really late though — about a week and a half before the final date of entry into the competition. However, with the help of my lecturers and classmates, we whipped into shape, hence the result speaks for itself,” he said proudly.

Rowe plans now to help next year’s competitor from his institution.

“I plan to step aside and help to prepare the other contestants for next year’s competition. But in a few years, I will most definitely enter for the NAJ Nurse of the Year competition,” he said.

His wife Sayeann, meanwhile, is among his biggest fans.

“I feel very proud of him. I was overwhelmed and I know he had the potential,” the 29-year-old, herself a nurse at Percy Junior Hospital, told Career & Education.

Rowe has, in the interim, encouraged other men with an interest in nursing to go for it.

“Nursing is indeed a diverse profession. There is no limit to the level of success that awaits you. It would be my pleasure working with (other male nurses) in the future. It is full time males step up… and claim their destiny.”