John Vanderlee Award

I am going into my fourth year of the BSN program at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.  I am interested in critical care nursing and am currently completing specialty courses to help me get to the ICU right out of school.  There is no single reason as to why I decided nursing was the career path for me.  I have been somewhat of a science nerd from high school.  When I found out about the BSN program, I believed it was the perfect way to apply my favourite subject, biology.  Was I ever right!  The more I found out about the profession, the more excited I got.  I also started to read about patient/family encounters with nurses and how impactful they were while providing care.  It dawned on me that there could be no better satisfaction than positively impacting people’s lives.  I have luckily been able to experience the feeling of making a difference in people’s lives and I would not trade the feeling for any other.  All in all, I guess I became a nurse because I love how the body works and I want to make differences in my patients’ lives.  I am honoured to be the recipient of this award and I thank the Canadian Nurses Foundation for providing opportunities like this one.