An unfulfilling career
“For me, it's a happy story, even though people might see it as a tragic one. At least, a story with a happy ending.” With these words, Antonio Díaz sums up a life journey that has taken him from the world of banking to the corridors of the Hospital Clínic Barcelona, where he now works as a nurse.
For years, his professional career had been linked to electronic banking, financial markets and new technologies. “I worked in banking for many years… but there comes a point when that doesn't satisfy me,” he recalls. However, the passage of time, stability and a good salary made it difficult to consider a change: “I was already in my 40s and at that point you become very conformist. Even if you don't like it, or you're not happy, or you're not okay with what you're doing.”
The diagnosis that changes everything
In 2019, her father fell ill with a kidney condition and was put on the waiting list for a transplant. After the operation at the Carlos Haya Hospital in Málaga, the recovery was not as expected: “My father lost a lot of weight, he lost his voice… and in the middle of the pandemic we were given the diagnosis: MND. We didn't know what it was, the only thing we understood is that my father was going to die.”
That moment forced the family to reorganize. “I was living alone and I moved back home to my parents' house, to my childhood bedroom. My sister came back too, like a family reunion to enjoy the time my father had left.”
As the illness progressed, Antonio felt he needed to know more. “When the ambulance service came to do the dressings, I felt very limited,” he explains. The need to learn how to care for his father led him to take a leave of absence and enrol on the Nursing Degree course at the University of Almería. “The only thing that motivated me was learning how to care for my father, with no vocation.”
The turning point that marks the start of a new chapter
The course started that September and, a month later, his father died. Antonio admits he considered dropping out of his studies, but his mother—also a nurse—encouraged him to finish the first year before making a decision.
That advice started a new chapter. “I finished my degree, left the bank... and that was the final push.” Nursing, which had started as a circumstantial necessity, became his new professional direction.
Professional practice upon arriving at the Clínic
Once he had completed his degree, his interest in nursing management and leadership influenced his final decision. “My management lecturer in Almería told me that, by a wide margin, the best nurse managers in Spain are in Barcelona and, within Barcelona, at the Clínic. So, I fought to come here.”
From day one, he says he has found a team that has helped him grow: “They've been helping me since the very beginning… We have a very busy ward, but they're always ready to help.”
On clinical practice, he says he places importance on the relationship with the patient: “It's not pleasant for a person to be in hospital; you have to make the time they spend here as pleasant as possible.” He also highlights the cross-disciplinary learning of teamwork, an element he cites as key: “If the hospital is clean, it's because of a great cleaner; the HCAs are your hands and feet; the porters move the patients… you are nothing without every member of the team.”
Antonio's journey highlights two aspects: the personal transformation motivated by a specific need for care, and the importance of training and management in the care setting. His experience highlights the role of teamwork and nursing management in high-level centres. In this regard, the professionalism of Hospital Clínic Barcelona—understood as a set of structures, protocols and teams—is reflected in the combination of knowledge, clinical practice and interprofessional coordination that guarantees comprehensive and specialized care.
