FEATURE PROFILE: Don Verano
When Don Verano was a kid in the Philippines, he had no idea what he wanted to do for a living. He just knew he wanted to wear white.
That may seem like an odd ambition, but as a child growing into his teenage years, the now 50-year-old Chicago nurse saw wearing white as a symbol of cleanliness and purity. So, he imagined jobs that had white uniforms, seeing himself as maybe a priest or a medical technologist.
Despite Filipino nurses being almost a stereotype in the United States, no one in Don’s family growing up in the Philippines was one. Yet despite having no mentors, he chose nursing as his field of study at the university he attended, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
In his third year, an influential professor introduced him to the wonders of the kidney. “People today still don’t know exactly how it operates,” Don said.
He stayed in the Philippines for eight years after graduating. Then in 2003, he immigrated to Peoria, Illinois, in the United States. They needed nurses with kidney specialties, and he took advantage of the opportunity. Not because he had ever hoped to work in the U.S., but because of the broader range of opportunities that existed here.
In the Philippines, the options for kidney nurses were limited, he said. Back home, the paths upward lay in either education or leadership. In America, choices like private practice or working in clinics were also available.
In time, Don would explore many options where today, he is a Certified Nephrology Nurse – Nurse Practitioner (CNN-NP), which signifies a specialty in kidneys. He was one of the first in years to pass the CNN-NP certification exam and even wrote a how-to book on the test that was published in December 2020.
Today, part of his career includes a visiting professorship at a branch of Champlain University in the Chicago area. He tells his students that part of their role as nurses is to teach. When it comes to the kidney it’s about spotting issues early, making sure patients get medications because today’s remedies can cure kidney disease, and most importantly, focus patients on prevention and health.
Going forward, Don intends to write more books. “I see many aspiring kidney specialists, but they don’t have the books that guide them. That will be my next project.”
