Stephaine de Young
May 2020
Stephaine
de Young
,
RN
Global Child Health
The Hospital for Sick Children
Toronto
Canada

 

 

 

Stephanie de Young is a nurse leader who exemplifies The DAISY Nurse Leader characteristics not only within SickKids Hospital but also globally. As the nurse manager for SickKids' Centre for Global Child Health (C-GCH), Stephanie works to enable her staff and those partnering with the centre to develop a shared vision for healthier children, a better world!
At the C-GCH we are working to build the capacity of nurses in countries such as Ethiopia, Ghana, and the Caribbean. One of the ways we are doing this is through education initiatives for health workers (mainly nurses) by developing curriculum and building capacity in local educators to help improve child health in areas where many health workers have minimal training and little to no access to paediatric specialization. Stephanie has worked endless hours to develop relationships and build trust with local partners so that SickKids nurse educators can work with local faculty to develop capacity and bring change to systems in order to provide evidence-based care that promotes health and improves hospital care.
Although her work is a manager role, Stephanie loves to be involved in both the classroom and clinical settings abroad, role modeling and interacting with patients and local nurses to advocate for family-centered care, interprofessional collaboration, and the use of evidence-based practice to ensure best possible outcomes for children and their families.
Stephanie promotes nursing where ever she goes, advocating for nursing to be the focus of projects. She often reminds interprofessional colleagues that nurses are the key providers in primary health care around the world, making up to 60-80% of the health system workforce. Knowing that more than 1/3 of the world's health workers live in the US and Canada while 90% of the global burden of disease is carried by the rest of the world, Stephanie is truly a global advocate for nurses through her involvement in the C-GCH's capacity building endeavors.
Stephanie has been a mentor to myself and many other nurses working under her at the C-GCH. She works with her nursing staff to understand our professional goals and then advocates for opportunities for us to work towards them. She is accessible and willing to problem solve with her nursing staff, even when that means we are reaching out to her from another continent with 4, 6, or even 8-hour time difference! Stephanie is truly a DAISY Nurse Leader.