After he suffered the biggest disappointment of his life, Conrad Cordova, RN, took what he had left and parlayed it into a nursing career, first in cardiac intensive care and now as a cardiac inpatient educator.

"We're clearly making a big difference in these patients," with a lot of bedside education, Cordova said.

He took on the educator role this year at Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital after a consolidation of open-heart programs and cardiac intensive care units in the regional medical mecca that is Tucson, Ariz.

By the time heart patients leave Cordova's care, they have a complete picture of where they've been medically, where they are, what their expectations can be and-most importantly-how not to become a repeat patient.

"We actually get pictures of their coronaries from the cardiac cath lab and go over coronary anatomy and show them their lesions before and after," Cordova said.

It is then that they talk at length about factors behind heart disease and the central question: "What are we going to do to prevent a recurrence?" With American Heart Association guidelines in mind, Cordova stresses exercise, cholesterol management, stress reduction and tobacco cessation to greatly reduce the risk of a second event.

Apart from family history, smoking is the No.1 factor in heart disease, Cordova said. "We have great contacts here in Tucson with smoking cessation programs," including some that provide vouchers for nicotine patches, therapy and counseling, he said.

Cordova said the stress as an educator is minimal compared with five years of patient management in cardiac intensive care. But he still works on call doing catheterizations, angioplasty stints and permanent pacemaker insertions in the cardiac cath lab, where he turned the loss of one medical service career into another.

A first-generation American, Cordova, 38, describes himself as of "Mexican blood, a Spanish tongue and American heart and soul." He wanted to be a firefighter and emergency medical technician for his native Tucson and after nearly seven years of applications, he was accepted into the city fire academy. But in the 13th week of the16-week school, Cordova failed a crucial test and was out.

"I thought, 'What the heck, I have EKG skills,' " he said, "so I applied at every hospital in Tucson," pushing his advanced life support skills from 10 years as an EMT in a small fire department. Cordova landed an offer to train in monitoring and hemodynamics in a cardiac catheterization lab, which served as a two-year springboard to nursing school, a career in cardiology beginning in 1996 and a commission in the Arizona Air National Guard.

"I didn't see myself going very far in the fire department in the Guard," Cordova said. "So I transferred over to the medical unit and went through their medic school. Right when I graduated from nursing school, I got commissioned." He soon will go before a promotions board for the rank of captain.

Cordova said the Guard unit has several missions, including an air critical transport service. On training weekends, though, the unit mostly prepares to staff military hospitals in the event that the primary staff is deployed elsewhere.

"The thing about nursing is that the choices are so varied," Cordova said. Regardless of one's choice, "it's a privilege to be able to help people when they are at their worst and be part of the solution," he said.