Escobedo expands leadership students’ horizons

Nick Escobedo showed up at work one day and was told he was in charge – an experience not uncommon for nurses.

“Folks aren’t necessarily looking for leadership. It just kind of happens,” said Escobedo, DNP, RN, OCN, NE-BC. “You either lean into it or decide it’s not for you.”

He chose to lean in.

Now, no matter how busy he gets as the associate chief of nursing at Houston Methodist-Cypress, he takes time to precept graduate students in the Nursing Leadership and Administration track at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston.

Escobedo attended a health magnet high school in El Paso and gravitated to nursing because it combined things he loved – science, critical thinking, and heart. He moved all the way across Texas to study nursing at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, where he earned his associate’s degree. He found his niche in oncology nursing and earned his Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) through a bridge program at Texas Tech University.

Over the next several years, Escobedo worked in managerial roles within the Memorial Hermann and Houston Methodist health systems. He told his supervisor he wanted to move up to the director level, and they ended up going through the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) leadership track at Cizik School of Nursing together.

Escobedo graduated in 2019, and he appreciated how the faculty intentionally grouped students together on projects who had different backgrounds and were studying on different tracks.

“That’s the real world. That’s what we do day in and day out,” he said. The DNP program prepared him to work not only with nurses specializing in various areas of healthcare but with business leaders as well. “I don’t have to be an expert in informatics, but as a leader, I know enough to work through these processes.”

He takes a similar approach when precepting. He may send a student to spend time with peers or leaders in the finance or quality improvement departments, for example.

“We look at their objectives, what they are interested in, and where they have gaps,” he said. “I’m an access point for them. I’m going to be a connector.”

Escobedo continues to grow in his own career and hopes to be a chief nursing officer someday. He believes in precepting as an important way to give back to the profession.

“I had some really good preceptors, and when the opportunity came along that I could take students on, I did,” he said. “I’m paying it forward. People did that for me, and now it’s my role to do that for others.”

Cizik School of Nursing offers the Nursing Leadership and Administration track in the MSN and post-master’s DNP programs. A BSN to DNP track will be available beginning in the Fall 2027 semester.