Innovative Medicines Canada Award

A Registered Nurse residing in Powell River, British Columbia, I am in the midst of completing my first of two years in the University of Victoria’s Masters of Nursing program where I am studying to become a Family Nurse Practitioner.  Prior to nursing, I garnered over a decade of experience within health and social service provision in the non-profit sector.  Similarly, my nursing practice history describes the passion that I feel for community health, particularly with communities and individuals living with social stigma and “on the margins”.  My goal is to approach all nursing care with a trauma-informed, culturally safe, and client-centred practice.  I graduated with my BSN from the University of British Columbia four years ago, and since that time I have practised in the areas of primary care, community mental health and addictions, and home and community care.

At the heart of my nursing practice are the relationships that I develop with my clients.  Nursing in primary care contexts generates the long term relationships between clients and practitioners that I find to be such satisfying and challenging aspects to our role.  Returning to primary care has also been a main motivator for pursuing an advanced nursing practice as a Family Nurse Practitioner.  The support that I am receiving from the Canadian Nurses Foundation through its Innovative Medicines Canada Award will greatly assist in these educational and professional pursuits, and for that I am very grateful.