My name is Adam Rubanenko. I am a proud Registered Nurse who grew up in a household of medical doctors. I am here to share my story and my passion for Nursing as a profession with the Physician Outlook family. I was born in Los Angeles, California, to Nina & Gabriel Rubanenko, immigrants from Israel.

My father, Dr. Gabriel Rubanenko, immigrated to Israel as a young MD from Latvia which was part of the former USSR. He served as a doctor in the Israeli military when he met my mother Nina, who was also in the Israeli military known as the IDF – Israel Defense Force) in the 1970’s. My mother was part of a special unit that worked with the U.N. Envoys stationed in Israel. My parents met in the military, and my mom introduced my dad to my grandfather.

At that time, my grandfather Zev Ruderman was a partner in the first-ever nursing home in Israel and was in the process of helping the Israeli Parliament in writing the rules and regulations for nursing homes in Israel. My grandfather was impressed and hired my father to work as a medical doctor in the nursing home.

At the time my father was also a Judo champion, former Latvia champion and he also became an Israeli judo champion. He was always very fit, ate the best in nutrition and was also doctor for the Israeli national Olympic judo team.

As things took off and blossomed in my parents relationship, my father had dreams of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Eventually my parents decided to move to Los Angeles in 1980 and my father was accepted into the USC orthopedic residency program.

I was born in 1981 in Los Angeles. My father was working hard in his residency and moonlighting a lot (later, I found out that meant he was spending 48-72 hours at a time at the county hospital of USC for most of his shifts.), and I barely saw him as a young child.

At that same time my grandfather in Israel had built multiple more nursing homes with his partners – he had the biggest network of nursing homesand their nursing homes were the gold standard in Israel.

As time went on, my father graduated from his residency became a Board-Certified Orthopedic Surgeon, and received privileges to operate at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. He became recognized very quickly as a top orthopedic surgeon and was well known for his work in sports medicine and sports-related injuries, as he himself was a sports champion. Since he spoke Russian and Hebrew, he quickly had a thriving practice in Beverly Hills, and the Russian and Israeli community was frequenting his office along with the general populous. Not long after, my grandparents sold their stake in their nursing homes to move close to us in Los Angeles.

Growing up with my dad, my brother (4 years younger than me) and I played many sports (soccer, tennis, judo, etc.), were always active, and taught to eat well with proper nutrition.

My father educated us about the body, anatomy, physiology, and how sports and proper nutrition are so important and how they positively affect the body.

By the 90’s my father continued to grow his private practice and his surgical presence. My grandfather opened a nursing home in Anaheim, California. As a child, I grew up in hospitals with my father frequently taking me with him while rounding at the hospitals he was operating in, sitting in the nurse’s stations. I became friendly and very familiar with all the nurses at those hospitals. I loved the nurses and they loved me, they took care of me while my dad was rounding and taught me so much. I never forgot how they cared for me, and this was one of the main reasons why I went into nursing.

I grew up in hospitals and my grandparents nursing homes in Israel and California. My parents divorced when I was 10 and mom and grand-parents moved back to Israel. My brother and I moved to Israel with them. My grandfather had built new nursing homes and I was also spending so much time in the nursing home with the nurses. I was inspired to study nutrition and exercise and became a fitness instructor in Israel.

Nurses raised me in Israel and in the US. I spent most of my childhood surrounded by nurses. Their love and compassion inspired me to move back to the USA and go to school.. I moved back to the US in my early 20’s and moved in with my dad. I loved the OR growing up, so my father encouraged me to study surgical technology. I became a certified surgical technologist and worked with my dad and his surgeon friends for a year before I decided to go back to school to become a nurse. (never forgetting the lessons nurses taught me growing up..love, compassion, and dedication for patient care).

I went back to school and became a Licensed Vocational Nurse. I worked at one of the same hospitals my dad operated in for many years, and many of the nurses were still there. They continued with the same lessons they taught me as a kid – but now as a professional nurse – so it came full circle.

After a year working in the hospital as an LVN, I decided to go back to school to become a registered nurse while working as an LVN. It was difficult to work full-time in the hospital and go back to nursing school, so a friend of mine told me about home health. Once I realized that a nurse can work outside of the hospital or nursing home and that in home health I was able to make my own schedule and spend 1 on 1 time with the patient to really get to know them.. I jumped on that opportunity.

I started home health visits as an LVN while finishing up my RN program. Eventually I left my hospital floor nurse position to work in home health full time, as it just fit my schedule much better and allowed me to study more.

Once I became an RN, I had over a year’s experience in home health, so naturally I continued working as an RN field nurse, visiting patients at home. I was providing initial assessments, resumption of care after hospitalization and discharge/recertification for more home health care.

After working for a year as a field RN, I was promoted to a case manager position inside the office. By then I had learned the business aspect of home health, and grew up with many doctors around my dad so I did marketing as well. Also growing up in a nursing home taught me a lot about the business of medicine.

I worked as a case manager for a year and excelled in business development. I brought referrals from many doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes that would direct patients to them for home health care. Soon after, I was promoted to be the Director of Nursing for the home health care arm of where I was working. I revamped the office completely. I hired a full new office staff and many new field staff nurses.

It got to a point where I hired all the company staff, brought in most of the business as patient referrals, and managed the office clinically. I was doing everything except signing the paychecks. I wanted a partnership stake in the business, but my boss considered and eventually declined my offer.

My grandfather/father loaned me the funds to acquire a home health agency that was for sale in my area and I purchased the agency. The office staff and referral sources naturally gravitated to my new company to the point they all left the previous home health agency where I was employed.

We were getting busy rapidly as my staff was loyal to me, very seasoned since I was the one that trained them. I had the best IV infusion nurse, the best wound care nurses, etc. Most of the hospitals, nursing homes and many medical groups and private clinics were working with us and referring to us.

My dad became my medical director and all his friends and colleagues were referring to us. We did such great work that I had to open another home health office to accommodate all the referrals. Our good name and reputation spread very rapidly.

We were getting referrals from LA County, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura County, and other counties throughout Southern California. Many doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, and rehab centers were relying on us to provide great quality care for the patient after discharge from inpatient facilities and to prevent re-hospitalization. I subsequently opened a hospice company to be able to provide the whole continuum of care in the home. My staff was cross-trained to care for issues as simple as hypertension all the way to end-stage carcinoma.

Two years ago I received a great offer to sell my companies. I entertained the offer as I wanted to get into the business of nursing homes and assisted living facilities so I sold my businesses.

I am now a partner in a small nursing home but ever since I sold, my referring doctors and my old office staff and field nurses have not stopped calling me about opening up another home health agency stating that we were the best and provided top quality care that that was unrivaled.

A year and half later my doctor and nurses finally convinced me to open a home health office again.. so as I write this I opened a new home health agency less than a month ago and we are thriving. All my doctors, hospitals, nursing homes etc are referring as they were the ones that convinced me to go back into my specialty.

The Sky is the Limit
P.S. During the pandemic I obtained my Gerontological Nursing Certification (GERO-BCTM), got licensed as an assisted living administrator, and got DSD licensed (Director of Staff Development) which allowed me to become a nursing school program director, and qualified to teach nurses and issue them Continuing Education credits. I continue to work closely with physicians and others on a multi-disciplinary team, and I am fortunate to ensure that all Home Health patients are getting the very best care.