August 10, 2016 is a day we at Desert Regional Medical Center will never forget. Vicki Dippner-Robertson came to work early, as she always did, for her shift in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Shortly after receiving report for her babies she began not feeling well. Vicki was more concerned about who was going to take care of her babies than her own health. This was typical of Vicki as she's known for always putting others before herself. "Miss Vic", a mentor, second mother, excellent nurse, and dearest of sweet friends was taken to heaven that day. Though taken too soon, she lived a full, happy, and colorful life.
Vicki Dippner-Robertson was born in Eston Saskatchewan, Canada. Miss Vic was a diploma nurse who started her nursing career caring for the Inuvik people as an outpost nurse in the Yukon of Northern Canada. She worked in Calgary for a time followed by studying midwifery at a school in Scotland. She came to the United States and became a U.S. Navy Nurse, where she shared stories of sleeping on ships, first responding to rescues, and jumping out of helicopters. Miss Vic was an avid reader who loved education and travel. Throughout her studies she became a sexual assault nurse examiner while working in the emergency department at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio, California where she began educating as an American Heart Association Instructor teaching ACLS, PALS, and NALS. While working per-diem at JFK she began working at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage as one of the first nurses in the Interventional Radiology Lab, then transitioned to the electrophysiology lab. She loved to learn! Miss Vic began working at Desert Regional Medical Center in 2007 as the clinical educator in the Emergency Department. Through her involvement in the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), she grew the Trauma Nursing Core Course (TNCC) and Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course (ENPC) in the Coachella Valley. She was TNCC and ENPC Faculty, mentored many instructors and course directors, was an ENA California Delegate, the California Pediatric Chair, and Southern California Regional Director for trauma. She proudly acquired her Masters of Science in Nursing, at age 57, and was in the beginning phases of attending school for her Doctor of Nursing Practice. In November 2015, Vicki transferred to the NICU where she successfully became DRMC's first Versant transition nurse. She chose to transfer to the NICU because, "I want to go back full circle to where it all begins in life… as a baby."
Miss Vic was a multifaceted woman who traveled the world as a nursing delegate, was ambassador for the profession of nursing, and was truly fascinating. She loved being a member of the red hat society, was genuine, laughed often, had a great sense of humor, loved with all her heart, and always remembered a birthday, anniversary, or special event. Miss Vic had a special way of making you feel as if you were the only one who mattered in life. She leaves behind two sons and many in the nursing and healthcare profession who loved her from across the world. Our hearts are heavy but spirits are bright with the great memories we have of her. I've never known anyone who lived life to the fullest, each and every day, never worrying about tomorrow, and cherishing each and every moment, as Vicki did. All who knew Vicki would agree that she would say, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." (Dr. Seuss).
Nursing is an art, it requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any printer's or sculptor's work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God's spirit. It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the Finest of Fine Arts. ~Florence Nightingale
Vicki was a nurse both in profession and in life... She was the Finest of Fine Arts!