CINA/CNF Indigenous Award

My name is Vienna McBurney and I’m a third year nursing student. Unlike many, I don’t have a personal experience growing up as a hospital kid, rather I’ve just always been interested in the medical field. I’ve been told that when I was 3, I loved watching heart surgery on YouTube as much as cartoons. Throughout my life I have been in a variety of roles requiring me to care for people including being the eldest child, nannying, lifeguarding and being a patient care aide. I’ve always loved helping people and knew I wanted to continue doing so as a career. Between the exposure to a variety of health care workers in my family and researching various health careers, I decided I wanted to be a nurse and have had my heart set on it since. Over the past two years of school I’ve learnt so much and have enjoyed the journey. My practical labs, clinical experience, and current summer job as a ‘patient care aide’ have reinforced my nursing dream and I am excited to continue to put my skills to use and help people so they can get back to focusing on their own dreams. I currently aspire to be a pediatric nurse and eventually a Nurse Practitioner, though I look forward to exposure to all areas in this amazing profession. The nursing profession is important, inspiring, has diverse areas of specialty and is a fabulous challenging career which I am honored to be part of.