People of Georgian: Nursing student with family of doctors driven by helping others

What’s your story?

To mark National Nursing Week, May 8 to 14, we’re highlighting one of our nursing students in this week’s People of Georgian series. The Georgian community is full of unique, inspiring perspectives —and we’re sharing them one feature at a time.

People of Georgian: Meet Luiza Pinto

I’m from Brazil. That’s where all my family’s from, but I was born in the States.

We go back a lot to Brazil every year. We go usually in January, February, then in the middle of the year, and then we go back for Christmas.

A side view of a person with long, wavy brown hair, hoop earrings, black top and jeans, turning toward the camera and smiling.

Everyone jokes I’m a fake Brazilian because I was the only one of my family that wasn’t born there.

But I speak Portuguese fluently, and we’ve gone back every year since I was a kid, and we speak Portuguese at home. The history and the culture of Brazil are really important to me.

I have a lot of doctors in my family, a lot of nurses. Whenever I go to visit them I just hear a lot of doctor talk.

My aunt, who’s an anesthesiologist, took me to watch a couple surgeries, when I was in Grade 7.

“I like helping people, and I thought nursing would be a good start to that.”
Luiza Pinto

After that summer I was like, “Yeah, that’s what I want to be doing.” I like helping people, and I thought nursing would be a good start to that.

In Brazil, the poverty rates are really high, so there are constantly people needing help.

It’s crazy how many people grow up with medical conditions that they can’t do anything about, and they get worse and sometimes pass away. Here in Canada, it’s crazy how many health-care opportunities we have.

Helping others through health care is in the family

My aunts and uncles have always been doing pro-bono medical work.

Growing up around all those doctors and seeing what they can do for the poorer families made me want to go into nursing.

Nursing, compared to other undergrad programs, is very hands-on, especially in the hospital.

My second semester at Georgian, the one I just finished, I was already in the hospital doing 10-hour shifts, so that was great.

I think it was really important Georgian kept its nursing labs open, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. That really helped.

Everything I did well in hospital was because I learned it so well in theory with the profs, who I adore.

Five people, one of whom is holding a small dog, who are dressed casually, stand outside in the snow on a road with green trees on either side.

‘What if this patient were my mom or my dad?’

I think I’ll want to work here in Canada as a nurse, but for sure I’d want to go back to Brazil and, while I’m visiting, help with volunteering. I’m looking at internships to do with my family.

Even though the shifts can be long, I think of it as, “What if this patient were my mom or my dad? I’d want the person taking care of them to be as nice as possible.”

That’s what I think of all the time, and that’s why I love doing it. I want to help any way I can.

Luiza Pinto, a student in Georgian’s Bachelor of Science – Nursing (BScN) program.

More about Georgian’s nursing degree

Study close to home and graduate with the advantage of more industry connections, hands-on practice and one-on-one training with small class sizes taught by expert faculty who care.