Ryan Clark thinks of himself as an ordinary guy.
He’s married and has several pets, loves to ski and ride bikes, is a great cook and is on his way to becoming a registered nurse.
He’s usually too busy to stop and take into consideration the fact that he only has one arm.
“I don’t think of myself as different from anyone else,” the 32-year-old Bakersfield College student said. “The only times I actually see myself differently is when I actually see myself in the mirror and think, ‘Wow, that looks strange.’ Other than that, I’m just a regular guy.”
Clark was born with one arm and half of the other, but does not consider himself handicapped. He describes himself instead as “handi-capable.” As a third-semester nursing student, he has three nursing classes, each with a lab component, and works under the supervision of a registered nurse at local hospitals to gain work experience. He said the students and instructors in the program have been encouraging, and he sets no limits for himself.
“I’ve lived this my whole life,” Clark said. “My grandfather once told me when I was a kid, ‘For you, there’s no such word as can’t,’ because obviously that’s going to be my obstacle. We live in a two-handed world, and I’m a one-and-a-half-armed person. You have to adapt, and that’s what I’ve done my whole life.”
A native of Riverside, Clark said his parents were positive when he was growing up, submerging their only child in sports and activities such as football and swimming. He said his mother has been a confidence builder his entire life.
“My mom is more proud than anyone,” he said. “I came into this world with one arm, and it never phased her. She never was negative about anything. To see me succeed in life, to come into my own and eventually become a nurse, she’s very proud.”
So proud, that she wants to see him go to medical school.
“She wants to see me become a doctor, but I’m a little too old for that now,” he said with a laugh.
Laughing is something Clark does often, even though at first he appears to be shy. He said he often uses humor to make people feel comfortable and is not offended when asked about his appearance.
“I try to have a sense of humor about it to let people know they can talk about it, or ask questions. They can feel comfortable around me.”
As a young child, Clark was self-conscious about his arm and wore a prosthetic limb. Upon entering high school, however, he dropped that ritual to play football and decided to stop wearing it full time. He said he wears it for certain activities only, such as biking, skiing and lifting weights, and wants to have one specifically made but has had trouble finding someone who will create a limb using his ideas.
“I know in the future, in the field I’m going into, I may have to have an arm specifically made,” he said.
With a preference for working in the emergency room, Clark’s ultimate goal is to become a field flight nurse on a helicopter.
“I like the fast pace,” he said. “It gives you the chance to help people at the most critical time. I really feel I can perform under pressure quite well.”
Cindy Collier, the director of the BC Nursing Program, said nursing students have to be able to handle that kind of pressure while maintaining their compassion. She said she believes nurses do not receive the credit they deserve in that aspect.
“To be an effective nurse, you have to have the ability to handle the science of it, but the art of it is the caring,” Collier said. “You have to have a nice blend. … Nurses have a huge impact on patients’ lives.”
Clark agrees that compassion is a crucial element to being an R.N., although it’s easy to become callous.
“It’s easy to see just horrible things happen to people that you become desensitized,” Clark said. “I’ve just told myself that I always need to be compassionate and have sympathy, because those are things you can offer to people. If you get calloused, the patients become just a number.”
He said nurses are a big part of the healing process that goes beyond the surface, to a patient’s emotional wounds, as well as their family’s.
“We don’t just treat the patient,” Clark said. “We treat the family as well. There’s always someone who loves that person.”
Organ transplants have been an extraordinary experience for Clark to observe. He said while he has seen his share of blood and gore, it is these opportunities that stick in his memory.
“The biggest things that stood out to me were the transplants,” he said. “One person died one night, and two people lived. It was something that really stuck in my head. I always wanted to be a part of it, someone who contributed back as well.”
Clark’s wife, Michelle, thinks it is his attitude, not just his physical appearance, that will set him apart from other nurses.
“He has a gift to help people,” she said. “I’ll be very excited for him when he sees the fruits of his labors, for him to be able to say, ‘Hey, I did it and I did it better than a lot of other people.’ ”
She said she often forgets her husband only has one arm because it’s difficult for her to list things that he can’t do.
“He’s so capable, and his arm has nothing to do with what he has to offer,” she said. “There’s so many times I forget about his arm. There’s very few things he can’t do. I don’t think of him as Ryan, my one-armed husband.”
While both Clark and his wife have pondered the possibility that he may encounter difficulty getting hired because he has only one arm, Collier said it was a non-issue.
“I’m sure people will look at Ryan and will wonder about his skills, but once he proves himself, he’ll be fine,” Collier said. “He’ll succeed and be great. He has a lot of passion. He’ll be a good nurse.”
Clark said that while it takes him longer to learn certain procedures, his lack of both hands doesn’t interfere when he works. He said it took him a long time to learn how to put on sterile gloves successfully, but that he enjoys showing his instructors what he’s capable of.
“I was in the shower, and (how to put on the gloves) just came to me,” Clark said. “Divine intervention just finally said, ‘Here you go, this is how you do it.’ I like showing my instructors the different kinds of things I can do. It’s rewarding because they’re amazed and I’m happy because I can do it.”
The next step for Clark is to not only become the most proficient nurse he’s capable of being, but the fastest as well, to compete with other nurses who have two hands, he said. He feels lucky to not have days where he wishes his situation was any different.
“I was born this way,” he said. “I figure if God thought I could do it with one hand, that’s all I needed. I don’t need two.”