What inspired you to pursue nursing as a career?
Oh, that's a great first question. I guess I’ve always felt interested in providing care for people. Being an older sibling and having kids of my own, being in that kind of a role just feels natural. I actually went into nursing a bit later in life after the birth of my children. Through that I gained a new appreciation for the healthcare system and the care they provide for the community.
So, when the opportunity presented itself to go back and study, I chose nursing as that avenue. Then, I moved on and migrated into advanced-practice nursing, and it’s been exciting continuing down the pathway of higher learning.
That’s really interesting that you got into the nursing field later on. What was it like starting as a mature student, then pursuing postgraduate studies?
I think it was a great time for me, and fortunately, I wasn’t the only mature student in my program at that time. Since we had more life experience, we were able to bring that into our classes and share a different perspective.
By the time I finished my program, I had completed my fourth year in a subspecialty working in a critical care area. I began studying in the post-graduate rural and remote nursing program through UNBC and took on some contract work along the Alaska border. After that, I went on to pursue my masters degree, as a Nurse Practitioner. I had this quest for further knowledge, so I knew I wasn’t done yet.
And now you’re pulling double duty, practicing and instructing!
Yes, now I practice as a family nurse practitioner here at the Quesnel Primary Care Clinic within Northern Health and I’ve been a faculty member with CNC since 2018. You called it double duty, but I don’t really look at it that way.
I think it’s important to have instructors that maintain a professional practice. It keeps you current, ensures best-practice, and allows you to bring that up-to-date knowledge into the classroom. The quality of teaching that we provide directly impacts patient care, so it’s very important.
You’ve had the opportunity to learn in a variety of nursing environments. What makes the nursing baccalaureate program in Northern BC so great?
I can’t stress enough how important it is that we have the smaller class sizes and smaller student to instructor ratio. We see students that come to our facility from much larger institutions and they talk about the difference in their lectures and previous clinical rotations versus their experience at CNC – it all comes down to support. Support from our staff, support from the community, and support from other students.
Some students are nervous to go to a small town for a program, but by the end they really appreciate how much they learned. You get a different experience being in a smaller facility because we aren’t specialized units. We cover anything and everything that comes through our facility, so our graduates become really well-rounded nurses with a lot of hands-on clinical experience. They’re highly sought after once they finish the program.
What advice would you give to anyone considering nursing as a career path?
The biggest thing I always stress to my students is that it’s a big undertaking to go into this program. There’s going to be good days, but there will also be hard days when you question whether you’re cut out to do it or not. Just recognize that every one of us who has gone into this profession have had the same experiences and felt the same way.
That said, for somebody who’s got the ambition to care and to learn, and who recognizes how fundamentally important this work is to society, we’ll be there to support them every step of the way – especially when it’s hard. And, once they’re done, they’ll have a dynamic career path, completely capable of working anywhere in the world in any subspecialty.
It’s tough, but nursing is where it’s at!
You’ve obviously held on to that ambitious spirit. Do you have any career goals you’re working towards?
When I did my master’s program in Saskatchewan, my goal was to go into family practice as an independent provider. It was a great decision, and I’m really happy I’ve done that. I learn new things every day and I feel like I’m making a real difference in the community. I’ve even had the opportunity to publish my
first written research in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners.
With that said, I’m always on that quest for more knowledge. I’m currently doing surgical training with the health authority, which is a new role that I requested. One day I hope to do a doctoral program once I’ve got more experience in independent practice. I’d like to focus more on policy and leadership, and how NPs can expand their scope to ease some of the burden on our medical system.