Sylvester Nurses Recount Their Career Paths at the Same Cancer Center – Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Sylvester nurses recount their career paths at the same cancer center.

By Alan Gomez

Twenty-three years ago, when Liceta Portela was working as a home health nurse, the single mother of two sometimes had to bring her young daughter along on patient visits. Most children would pass that time watching TV or playing a game in another room, but Tabatha Portela never left her mother’s side, intently watching as mom did her work.

‘I had a patient who had gangrene in her leg,’ Liceta Portela said. ‘It was necrotic with foul odor. It was terrible. Taby was like 7 years old, and she would just stand there next to me while I did all the wound care as if nothing. It came naturally to her. I knew she would go into the medical field.’

Desire to Help Others

She was right. And not only did Tabatha Portela become a registered nurse (RN), but the two are now working at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth, the University of Miami Health System. The rare mother-daughter nursing duo doesn’t see each other often since they work in different units and have different schedules, but they see their jobs as the culmination of a lifelong connection rooted in their desire to help others.

‘She never treated people like a patient, but like a family member,’ Tabatha Portela said. ‘That’s how she is, very caring. Seeing her do that, that’s what attracted me to nursing. And I feel like that’s what I do now.’

They both ended up at Sylvester, but mother and daughter took different paths to get there.

Liceta Portela was a sophomore at Miami Senior High School when she was first exposed to the medical field through the Health Occupations Students of America Club. That led to her first medical job in a nephrology practice. She worked there for 15 years, taking nursing classes from time to time on nights and weekends. When her daughters were 3 and 7 years old, Liceta Portela got a divorce, marking a crossroads in her life. ‘I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to make something good out of this,” she said.

She left her job, sold her house, moved back in with her parents, and enrolled at the Lindsey Hopkins Technical College near Jackson Memorial Hospital. She became an LPN and then an RN, with a BSN. But with two young girls at home, she couldn’t take a job at a hospital, opting instead to become a home health nurse because of its flexible scheduling.

As the kids got older, Liceta Portela was able to take more time-intensive jobs, always working with those who had special needs and chronic comorbidities.

Like her mother, Tabatha Portela didn’t go directly into nursing. While attending Miami Dade College, she considered studying health care management and drifted into pharmacy work for a while. But the calling to become a nurse remained.

Mom’s Advice

After a conversation with her mother, Tabatha started taking classes at HCA Florida Mercy Hospital College of Nursing. After she became an LPN, she got a job at Sylvester in the nurse navigation and site disease group. Then, after becoming an RN in 2020, she got the job in Sylvester’s Comprehensive Treatment Unit (CTU), working with patients undergoing chemotherapy and rising to become the charge nurse of her unit.

The job is a difficult one: she accesses ports, changes PICC line dressings, draws labs, performs injections, and all the other work that prepares patients for their treatment. Sometimes, she administers chemotherapy. But she’s succeeded because she learned how to treat patients the same way her mother did.

“I like to make their day better. I make them laugh,” Tabatha Portela said. “That’s what drives me to continue, just a difference I can make in somebody’s day at what is probably one of the worst times in their lives.”

Their roads finally converged in 2023 when Tabatha Portela was approached for a different job at Sylvester as a neuro-oncology triage nurse. This population of cancer patients calls Sylvester and can speak directly with nurses who are available to address immediate needs and challenges.

Tabatha Portela was happy with her current job, but suggested that her mother submit an application. She did, was hired, and they were soon working together at Sylvester.

‘It’s surreal,’ Liceta Portela said. ‘There are days where I see her and I swear to you, on the inside I’m thinking, ‘I can’t believe she’s a nurse.’ I’m so happy.”

Like any mother, Liceta Portela wants even more for her daughter. She constantly encourages her to go further and continue her education to become a nurse practitioner. But for now, she’s thrilled that they’ve both reached this point and have done it by helping each other every step of the way.

‘She’s always been my cheerleader and I’ve always been hers,’ Liceta Portela said.

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