Fausto Armando Duarte Rios

Fausto Armando Duarte Rios made two promises—the first to himself, the second to his mother. Both of these promises inspired him to be who he is today.

When his grandmother suddenly fell ill and he couldn’t do anything to help her in her last moments, Fausto was inspired to choose a profession dedicated to patient care.

“I promised myself that as long as I was caring for a sick person, I would not only do so with professionalism, but also with emotional support and empathy towards the patient’s family as well,” he said.

His second promise, to his mother, was that he would be an example for his brothers and sisters to help them all achieve their goals.

Throughout his education, Fausto realized something he had to do to fulfill those promises—he had to become a change agent to make the nursing profession visible and generate impact at all levels.

“I realized that in the hospital, I could make a positive difference for some patients, but by caring and advocating for necessary changes that improve public health and health policies, it could benefit not only thousands of more patients, but also employment and working conditions of the health professionals,” he said.

To help achieve this mission, Fausto participated in the second cohort of the Nursing Now Challenge (formerly the Nightingale Challenge) through Sigma. This initiative was created as a leadership development opportunity and works to form networks of young health professionals across the world.

“[The Nursing Now Challenge] opened the doors to another level of leadership experience,” Fausto said. “I had the opportunity to meet great young leaders in the nursing world and also gained the confidence to go out of my comfort zone.”

As part of the Nursing Now Challenge, Fausto is also a member of the Challengers Committee—a team dedicated to identifying innovative ways to support nurses and midwives in their roles as health leaders, professionals, and advocates, and to demonstrate that nursing and midwifery are exciting and rewarding careers to improve health recruitment and retention on a global scale.

Fausto said that great agents of change have emerged from the Nursing Now Challenge, and he hopes to do his part to improve nursing visibility and have a positive impact on the profession. Thanks to the skills he obtained from the challenge and his mentors, Fausto has secured a new position working in the United States at El Centro Regional Medical Center.

As Fausto continues to develop himself as a leader—an agent for change—and works to fulfill the promises that started it all, he’s grateful for the opportunity he’s had to learn from other young leaders around the world. His commitment to the Nursing Now initiative remains.

“My wish is to see nursing as a valued and respected profession around the world,” he said “We are a legacy of great nurses; it is now up to us, the youth, to protect nursing around the world. One world, one nursing.”

Fausto Armando Duarte Rios, BS, graduated in 2020 from the Autonomous University of Baja California in Mexicali, Mexico. He is preparing for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam and hopes to soon apply for the NCLEX. Fausto belongs to the Tau Alpha Chapter of Sigma.