Spartan Spotlight: Francis Gyau - From midfield to frontlines
5/12/2020 2:32:00 PM | Men's Soccer, General
Editor's Note: This is the first installment in a four-part feature series as USC Upstate Athletics, in partnership with the USC Upstate Mary Black School of Nursing, recognizes former student-athletes in the nursing profession in conjunction with International Nurses Day, today, Tuesday, May 12. The remaining features include: Samantha (Seelinger) DeMartino '15 (women's soccer), Georgina (Libertino) Ravan '99 (women's tennis), Mia Raiff '20 (women's soccer).
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – After transferring to USC Upstate from Cincinnati State Community College to play men's soccer, Francis Gyau completed his bachelor's degree in psychology in 2016. However, he had always been interested in a nursing career from a young age. Originally from Ghana, Gyau says he had family members in healthcare whose stories made him curious about the nursing profession.
"Any time the nurses would come home, they would tell me all about their day, things they encountered, cases they came across. It was all very interesting to me so I started to do research on it," said Gyau. "I got to Upstate and realized they have a really good nursing program, so after I got my bachelor's degree, I went back for nursing school."
"He was a very quiet, well-mannered, hard worker that was motivated to learn all he could to become a great nurse," said senior nursing instructor Monique Jones, DNP, MSN, RN.
After completing nursing school in 2018, Gyau returned to Ohio where he has since been working on the orthopedic and neurovascular floors at Mercy Health in Fairfield, a suburb of Cincinnati. However, since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, things have changed. Mercy Health altered all hospital protocols once it started receiving COVID-19 patients and began training its personnel to handle all the coronavirus cases they would encounter. "For the last month or two I've been rotating through the COVID-19 floors and my normal floor. We stopped all surgeries except emergencies, so occasionally we will do surgeries, but the majority of it is COVID-19 and strictly emergency procedures," said Gyau.
Though he never knows if he will be on his normal floor or the coronavirus floor until he arrives to work each night, Gyau says his mentality stays the same. "No matter what floor I'm on, my goal is to get my patient comfortable and healthy. Preparation wise, we dress differently on the COVID-19 floor, but that's pretty much the only difference from a non-coronavirus floor. Since I have a beard, I cannot wear an N95 mask so I have to wear the big face shield," Gyau said.
Gyau is sure that being a student-athlete at Upstate played a major role in helping him prepare for this career. He says when you're playing soccer, the team mentality is very essential, and in the hospital setting, you have to be part of a team as well. "Everyone plays a huge role. Whether you're a nurse, doctor, or nurse assistant, we all work as a team. I took the concept of playing on a soccer team where you have the defenders, midfielders, and strikers all working together to win a game and brought that same mentality to the hospital setting where we all come together and use our skills to help our patients. I think being on a team in my college days prepared me well to be where I am now," said Gyau.
That team mentality is also his favorite memory of playing soccer at Upstate. "It was so diverse to me. We had guys from Germany, Jamaica, England, and Ghana. It was guys from everywhere so I think how we all came together with such diverse backgrounds and played together as a team was the most fun part to me," he said.
"It was an absolute pleasure coaching Francis during his time at Upstate. He had a quiet and soft spoken personality but quickly earned the respect of all his teammates due to his character. Everyone on the team liked him and he always seemed to have a smile on his face. On the field, he was a beast. He played with composure and intelligence but he also had a side that was sheer grit, determination and fight. He had a huge influence on his teammates," said head men's soccer coach Scott Halkett. "His qualities as a person are exactly what you would want in someone taking care of and watching over you. His patients probably love and respect him."
As with any job, Gyau's career is not without its challenges. "You never know what to expect going into work. You have to know how to deal with pressure and intense situations. For instance, if someone is on the verge of losing their life, you have to stay calm and professional in order to do your job while consoling the patient and family. I think the hardest part is trying to combine all that while staying calm at the same time," he said.
Though it's on a much larger scale these days, adapting and responding to pressure is nothing new to Gyau. He says the pressures of being a student-athlete built him up to be able to deal with every situation that comes around.
Gyau's number one piece of advice to anyone starting out in the nursing profession is to be confident. "If you don't have confidence in yourself, I don't think you can do anything else," he said. "Believe in yourself, your education, your instructors, classmates, and teammates. Whatever you've learned from them, believe in it and apply it."
Lastly, when Gyau thinks about his time at Upstate, he remembers it with great fondness. "I've been in Cincinnati ever since I came from Ghana, so I've always been really grateful for Upstate giving me the opportunity to come to South Carolina and play soccer. I met a lot of new friends around Spartanburg," Gyau said. "Upstate has done a lot for me and given me great opportunities in my life."
