Austine Gaqui

In the Philippines, I was a nurse and a police captain. I cared for police officers and their families. I love helping people.

When my wife and I moved to Canada in 2009, I hoped to work as a nurse here too. But my first job was cleaning a church in Toronto.

I applied to become a Registered Nurse. I was told I needed to go back to school because my education from the Philippines did not meet the requirements in Canada at that time. We had just moved here. I needed to pay rent and buy food, and I could not afford to go back to school.

I kept looking for a way to return to nursing. In 2012, I became a Registered Practical Nurse. SHN gave me my first nursing job in Canada, even though I had no nursing experience here. I started caring for patients with kidney disease and later moved to hemodialysis.

I was happy to be a nurse again, but I still wanted to become a Registered Nurse. I kept working toward that goal. In 2024, I finally became an RN in Canada.

Today, I care for patients who come for dialysis several times a week. I have known some of them for more than 10 years. We know each other, and we have built trust. When someone is having a hard day, I can talk with them and help them feel more comfortable.

I also help new dialysis nurses learn the job. Some of the nurses I trained now work beside me. I helped start the Integrated Filipino Canadian Nurses Association, which had 50 members. Today, it has about 8,000. We help nurses who were educated in other countries understand how to become nurses in Canada. People helped me climb, so now I help others climb.

I remember how hard it was to find my own way. If I can make that path clearer for someone else, I will. When I first arrived at SHN, people gave me an opportunity and welcomed me like family. Now I want the nurses joining our team to feel that same support—and our patients to feel it every time they come through our doors.  

Mahal ko ang Scarborough.