Like mother, like son: A family story of nursing
A proud full-circle moment: Rosalyn Badua celebrates with her son, Dominic Flores, at his graduation from Humber Polytechnic’s practical nursing program in April 2026.
A proud full-circle moment: Rosalyn Badua celebrates with her son, Dominic Flores, at his graduation from Humber Polytechnic’s practical nursing program in April 2026.
Nearly 20 years ago, ONA member Rosalyn Badua stood beside her critically ill newborn son, not knowing what his future would hold.
Today, that little boy is preparing to become a nurse.
For Badua, a registered nurse herself, watching her son Dominic Flores enter the profession that once cared for him is more than a proud moment. It brings their family’s story full circle.
Badua calls car rides with her children their “happy place for conversations about life and their futures.” It was one of those conversations, when Dominic was in Grade 7, that he told his mother he wanted to become a nurse.
Badua’s connection to nursing began when she was a child in the Philippines. At seven years old, she underwent surgery and remembers the nurses who cared for her.
“The way they took care of me made me want to be a nurse,” she says.
She never let go of that dream.
After graduating as a nurse in the Philippines, Rosalyn immigrated to Canada in 1998. She obtained her Canadian RN licence in 2002, beginning her career at Norwood Nursing Home before joining Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital in 2007.
Years after nurses inspired Badua to enter the profession, she would find herself relying on them during the most frightening experiences of her life.
Dominic was born on September 12, 2006. Shortly after his birth, he became seriously ill. His condition deteriorated, and he eventually required specialized care at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto.
Rosalyn remembers being warned to prepare for the worst.
She also remembers one nurse.
While others feared Dominic wouldn’t survive, the nurse offered something his mother needed: hope.
Everyone said he wouldn’t make it, but that nurse was the only one who gave me hope.
“Everyone said he wouldn’t make it, but that nurse was the only one who gave me hope,” Badua recalls.
The nurse reassured her that she would be there with Dominic at SickKids while he underwent treatment and rehabilitation.
For a mother facing the possibility of losing her baby, those words stayed with her.
So did the advocacy of the nurses caring for him.
“The nurses were the ones advocating for my son,” she says. “They’re the eyes of the patients.”
Dominic survived.
He grew up, learned to read, play, dance and communicate and became the child his family had fought so hard for.
And all the while, nursing remained woven into his life.
Dominic watched his mother come home exhausted after night shifts. He remembered being told by his Lola (Tagalog for “grandma”) to keep quiet during the day because his mom needed to sleep before returning to work.
As he got older, he began to understand what those long nights meant. He saw the responsibility his mother carried for her patients. He saw her compassion.
And he learned from the way she cared for him, his sister and the people around her.
By Grade 7, Dominic knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to become a nurse.
Badua’s first reaction wasn’t what he might have expected. She knew how demanding nursing could be and wanted her son to understand the path he was choosing. But Dominic kept choosing it.
“She never forced me to become a nurse,” he says.
Instead, Badua promised to support him along the journey.
Dominic Flores graduated from Humber Polytechnic’s practical nursing program in April 2026 and is preparing to write his RPN registration exam, with hopes of eventually become an RN.
In April 2026, Dominic graduated from Humber Polytechnic’s practical nursing program.
He’s preparing to write his RPN registration exam and hopes eventually to bridge to become an RN.
His journey may ultimately bring him back to where his own story began.
Dominic hopes to explore pediatric nursing, caring for children during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. He’s also interested in geriatric nursing and caring for older patients who may similarly depend on nurses for compassion, comfort and advocacy.
For Dominic, caring for vulnerable patients is deeply personal. At the beginning of his own life, nurses were there when he needed them most. Now, he hopes to be that same source of care and support for someone else.
For Badua, the child whose future once seemed so uncertain is now devoted to caring for others.
“I’m so proud of him,” she says.
During one of Dominic's clinical placements, he encountered an elderly patient who was in pain. As care was being provided, Dominic noticed the patient repeatedly flinching. He spoke up, believing the patient’s pain needed to be addressed first.
For Dominic, it was simple: “Advocating for patients is what nurses do the most.”
Nearly two decades earlier, nurses had done exactly that for him.
They watched him. They cared for him. They advocated for him. And when his mother was frightened that she might lose her baby, one nurse gave her hope. Now, that baby is preparing to stand at someone else’s bedside.
Rosalyn Badua and Dominic Flores now share a special connection to the nursing profession – one built on compassion, care and advocacy.
Badua can already see the nurse he is becoming.
“I can see in him the compassion for patients,” she says. “He has a heart, mind and knowledge.”
And if Dominic could stand in front of the nurses who cared for him as a newborn today, his message would be simple.
“I’d give them a big hug and thank them for everything. Thank you so much for believing in me.”
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