What Being a Dad in Healthcare Means to Me
June 18, 2026By: Steve Odom
Categories: Personal Perspectives
In 1999, I became a paramedic and in 2000, I became a dad. I didn’t know it at the time, but both roles would shape not only my career, but my family’s as well.
By 2005, I was six years into my paramedic career, which has an average span of five years. Not knowing what was next, but knowing I needed a change, I:
- started and sold a lawn care business
- sold insurance
- then took a job as a scientific aide for the California Environmental Protection Agency
I was collecting scientific samples for CalEPA in San Jose on Valentine’s Day 2007, when my pregnant wife Christina, called to say she was on the way to the hospital in labor. She was not due until May 21st.
After driving back to Fresno at a speed I can admit to only because no one got hurt and because the statute of limitations has expired, it was only a handful of hours before everything meant to stop her labor had failed and she would be undergoing an emergency c-section because both her life and that of our unborn daughter was at risk. Not long after, Kara was born at 26 weeks’ gestation, weighing one pound, 13 ounces, and not at all ready to survive on her own. That’s where Valley Children’s stepped in.
The transport team arrived to whisk her away to the castle on the hill, where we spent the next three and a half months waiting, learning and, unexpectedly, falling in love with Valley Children's staff and culture. Sitting in a rocking chair in the NICU, watching the staff and physicians work tirelessly to make sure that Kara (and myself, Christina and our seven-year-old, Ashley) were well taken care of, I realized that nursing encompassed the parts of being a paramedic that I loved while being relatively protected from much of what I didn't - and that is when I decided I was going to be a nurse at Valley Children's.
Steve and Christina Odom with their daughters, Ashley and Kara
Thankfully, my paramedic license qualified me to be hired as a tech, and I started in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in June of 2009. By 2010, I had finished nursing school and stayed in the PICU as a staff nurse. In 2014, I had studied and progressed enough to become a critical care transport nurse, and by 2017, I was doing ECMO. From there, I became a charge nurse and after a couple of brief stints as interim PICU manager, I became the PICU director in 2022 and took responsibility for transport and the access center in 2023.
Following me, Christina went to school to become a nurse at Valley Children’s as well. Then seeing how much her mom and I loved our jobs, Ashley became a nurse in 2024 and now works in the Valley Children’s Emergency Department.
Steve Odom and his daughters, Kara and Ashley
Each year around Father’s Day, I think a lot about both of my daughters. Kara, while still too young to even breathe on her own, pointed me in a career direction that changed all of our lives immeasurably for the better. Ashley, choosing nursing on her own - and doing it so well - feels like a full circle moment. Knowing she now cares for families during some of their hardest moments just like the nurses did for us reminds me why this place and this work matter so much. It's hard to imagine a better year-round Father's Day present than knowing my family gets to continue making the same impact Valley Children’s first made on us.
