Becoming a Registered Nurse

The Future Face of Nursing Profiles

Nancy’s Campaign: Canadian Nurses Making a Difference

"Nursing is caring. Knowing that when someone is going through one of the most difficult times of their lives, you are helping to make it more manageable for them. That is the reward of nursing – being part of that moment."

Nancy DiPietro, RN

Inspiration for great acts often comes from a single event that touches us. For registered nurse Nancy DiPietro, that event came on August 12, 2006. Surrounded by 200 of her peers at the international nurses’ forum on the HIV/AIDS crisis, DiPietro was stunned to learn that not only were women and children suffering from the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, but also many of the nurses treating HIV/AIDS patients were infected themselves.

Not content to sit by and do nothing, DiPietro created Give an Hour, a campaign that calls upon the more than 268,000 registered nurses across Canada to support HIV/AIDS- affected nurses in Africa. Since launching the campaign, DiPietro has received tremendous support from nursing colleagues and organizations.

“As nurses in Canada, we have so many resources,” says DiPietro. “We work in safe buildings with well-trained staff. We have good benefits, including universal health care. We have opportunities to grow and learn….We can relate to nurses in other countries on so many levels. African nurses are women, they are mothers and some of them are ill. I know if I were sick, it would mean so much to me to have the right supports available.”

Working within what DiPietro describes as a “strong team of committed and generous women” has enabled her to find the time to organize her Give an Hour campaign amongst all of her other daily duties. She hopes to lead the way for other nurses to give to their African counterparts in order to ease their suffering.

Her career experiences as a nurse gave DiPietro the knowledge and skills necessary to create this meaningful national campaign. Building on work in an intensive care unit, operating room, post-anaesthetic care unit and women’s health, DiPietro joined the McMaster University Medical Centre team in 1993 and became a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) in 1997. She worked with survivors of sexual assault and collected forensic information.

As manager of Nina’s Place, the Regional Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Centre of Halton at Joseph Brant, DiPietro is all too familiar with the effects that diseases have on patients – socially, physically and emotionally. Along with covering the on-call component of their program, DiPietro’s current responsibilities include developing program policies and procedures, providing orientation and education, and creating partnerships with other organizations.

“Many of the clients I see are vulnerable,” says DiPietro. “They have been in positions where they have had no control over what happens to them or their bodies. Survival becomes their primary focus, and they do what they have to do to get by. I believe that it is the same for African women and nurses dealing with HIV/AIDS on a daily basis.”

DiPietro shares, “It is my hope that every nurse who can donate, does pledge the equivalent of one hour of pay each year to help nurses in Africa infected with HIV/AIDS.”

To make a donation and help other nurses, please visit the Stephen Lewis Foundation website at www.stephenlewisfoundation.org and mark your donation to the attention of Nurses Helping Nurses.