This story is part of our UCSF People series, highlighting the many dedicated individuals across the UCSF community who advance health worldwide through research, education, and clinical care in their everyday work.
Jim Gatewood, PhD, AGPCNP, RN, was destined to be a nurse.
His mother was a nurse in Britain’s Royal Air Force and later a health care administrator for 40 years. His aunt was a nurse at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in Exeter, England. Gatewood’s grandmother was also a nurse who worked and trained at Guy’s Hospital in London. And, as if that weren’t enough, his great grandmother served as a nurse during World War I.
“I entered into the family business,” Gatewood said.
But it wasn’t exactly a straight line into nursing.
The assistant professor in Community Health Systems initially had a very different career path, first pursuing a career as a historian of modern U.S. intellectual immigration and Asian American history. In a twist of fate following the end of a teaching contract, Gatewood went to work for his mother at an assisted living facility in Southern California. That’s where he fell in love with health care.
So, Gatewood went back to school in his 40s.
“I must have been the oldest person there by 20 years,” Gatewood said.
After completing his prerequisites at a local community college, Gatewood graduated in 2019 from the UCSF School of Nursing’s Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (AGPCNP) specialty. He’s now that specialty’s faculty coordinator at UCSF and practices at SteppingStone, where he cares for patients and oversees rotations for UCSF’s advanced practice nursing students – combining in-person learning with clinical experience.
“The connection between UCSF and the community is critical,” he said. “We're doing great work to keep people healthy and tackle these challenging issues head on.”
Tag along as we follow Gatewood through a day in his life. Read the complete story on the UCSF News website.