When sitting with Sylvia Barchue, you instantly realize you are in the presence of a confident woman, a real go-getter. As a young girl, she knew she wanted to be a nurse. With her caring nature and career goals in mind, Sylvia was just 19 years old when she left her native country, the beautiful island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, to attend nursing school in the UK. She lived with her aunt prior to attending nursing school. Sylvia successfully trained in a rigorous 3-year program. On completion she decided she wanted to specialize in critical care and completed a yearlong postgraduate training leading to critical care certification. It was a natural fit for Sylvia.
On completing her nursing program and critical care certification, she was offered a position in America. In the early 1980’s at the young age of 31, she moved to Arkansas to help in the completion of a new hospital where she designed the intensive care unit, commencing a new chapter of her career. In retrospect she credits her arrival in Arkansas as being the best place of entry for a nurse in the USA as it being the place with the best patient advocacy at the time, she was motivated to get started in a career here, but on the birth of her son she realized that raising her son as a black man in the South could bring more challenges so she moved east to be closer to family whose support would be pivotal to her success. She shares the various obstacles she managed as a newly arrived immigrant having worked professionally outside of the U.S. while navigating a new culture as a black woman.
It was this move that would launch her career with the VA- Veterans Administration. Working in the Bronx, NY, she began to build collaborative relationships with her colleagues and held her staff accountable to professional standards. She earned respect and moved up the ranks quickly establishing a stellar reputation. Sylvia had a vision, and her creative leadership brought new programs to the VA and ultimately, to benefit their patients. Her impact was uncontainable as she expanded her career into research, working on numerous publications with doctors and nurses who revered her opinions regarding patient care. She retired after 38 years at the VA in the Bronx but not without making last impact and imprinting her love and compassion to not only the patients, families, but to the 450 staff persons she supervised daily and at times the over 2000 when she was the sole executive on station. She expresses deep gratitude for her professional training, but attributes her successful career to the professional relationships she cultivated on her journey as a nurse, nurse supervisor, administrator, and hospital executive as well as the love and support her family gave her along the way.