Jesse Lynwood was dropping off a patient at St. Francis Medical Center’s emergency department when he saw the nurse who would alter his life path. It was an otherwise routine day for Jesse, who had by then been working as an EMT for Los Angeles County’s fire transport, with an eye towards becoming a firefighter, for several years. He brought his patient into an emergency department teeming with people. But amidst the clamor, he noticed one nurse—he never learned her name—moving from patient to patient. She brought a steady, unshakeable calm that seemed to anchor the chaos around her.
She stood out to him in the moment as someone whose demeanor was perfectly suited to the frenetic energy of emergency medicine. He thought, “She’s calm, just like I am.” And then almost as quickly, the thought shifted: “Maybe I could be a nurse.” The image stayed with him, igniting a spark that refused to fade. Six months later, he was at Compton College, signing up for the pre-requisite classes that would set him on a new path.
Though he grew up in Santa Ana, Jesse spent almost every weekend visiting relatives in Compton, where his family has roots extending back to the fifties. When his oldest daughter was born, he put aside his original dream of becoming a firefighter in favor of safety and stability. He worked in operations management with Fedex and UPS until she had nearly graduated from high school. Then, faced with the prospect of an empty nest, he decided to give his longtime dream of firefighting another shot, starting with a position as an EMT. But firefighter jobs were hard to come by.
Working as an EMT had shown Jesse firsthand how having a local hospital can change healthcare for an entire neighborhood. When no hospital existed in the area, “We would [have to] pick up patients from this community and bring them to almost every other hospital in the area—Harbor/UCLA, Long Beach—everywhere but here.”
After witnessing the ER nurse’s unshakeable calm, he began to think nursing could help fulfill the same calling behind his desire to be a firefighter—helping people in emergency situations. And when he heard that MLKCH was opening, he knew that he wanted to serve the community so many of his family members call home.
He's been at MLKCH now for almost 10 years—rising in the ranks from sitter, while he took classes at Compton College, through several nursing positions, and taking advantage of the MLKCH's nurse training programs along the way. In 2017, he entered the RN New Graduates Residency Program as the first Nurse Fellow and began working in telemetry on the 5th floor.
There, he remembers an elderly patient who had been fighting her nurses for the past two shifts. “I went in there and I said good morning to her, spoke to her. And she said, ‘I’ve been kicking and biting everyone that came in here, but the way you spoke to me this morning— I’m not going to do that anymore.’ I walked out of that room and thought, this is why I work here. She found some calmness in that moment. I realized I can really talk to the community because of the experiences that I’ve had.”
In 2019, Jesse took advantage of the Transitions to Practice program at MLKCH to transfer to the Emergency Department. Today, he is the Director of the Emergency Department & Clinical Observation Area
He knows it’s exactly where he belongs, and it’s part of what motivates his gratitude and generosity. Programs that MLKCH Gives supports, such as nursing residency and fellowship, helped him find his place as a force of calm and care for his community, and he gives back in turn.
“Being in the Emergency Department, we see everyone who comes through this hospital,” Jesse says. Mothers who walk to the hospital at 5:30am with three kids in tow because they have no other transportation, families without access to nutrition, people in crisis.
Jesse takes his oath as a nurse, to care for his patients, seriously, and sees his generosity as a natural extension. “I think anything that we can do to help the community, no matter how little it is, really goes a long way.”
You can make a big impact! Join Jesse in being a part of MLKCH Gives.