Bianca Beyer Award

After working as a Registered Nurse at Toronto Hospital for Sick Children for several years in the ‘90s, I returned to school to complete a Master of Science and then went on to obtain a law degree from The University of Western Ontario. I practiced in the Health Law department at a large law firm in Toronto, defending hospitals and nurses, before realizing that my true passion involved teaching future nurses about the law and its implications for their practice. I was incredibly lucky to obtain a position teaching in the nursing program at Conestoga College for a number of years before I moved to BC as an Assistant Professor at the University of Northern British Columbia.

I currently teach in the UNBC nursing graduate and undergraduate programs and I supervise Master’s students in our Academic (Thesis) and Family Nurse Practitioner degree streams. This faculty position has allowed me to rediscover on a daily basis what nursing can offer to the healthcare team and how very privileged I am to be part of such a powerful and beautiful profession. I am currently a PhD (Health Sciences) candidate with a dissertation focus on medication errors that have been committed by nursing students. As I am currently involved in data collection, and hope to soon begin writing up my work, the CNF Bianca Beyer Award will be instrumental in helping me to complete this process. Thank you so much to the CNF for this incredible honour!