Nova Scotia Nurses Scholarship

I am a psychiatric mental health nurse at NSHA in Halifax, NS who graduated with my BScN in 2018. I was drawn to nursing initially to make childbirth better for people by providing compassionate, evidence and trauma-informed care. However, throughout my undergraduate degree, I discovered a love for mental health nursing and was divided over which area to pursue, until, during a casual conversation with a preceptor, I realised that these are combined in perinatal mental health – my area of interest ever since.

In 2018, I completed Postpartum Support International’s (PSI) certificate in perinatal mental illness and in 2019, I will attend PSI’s advanced psychotherapy workshop, furthering my training and skills for working with people experiencing postpartum mental illness.

I am currently a Master of Science in Nursing student at Dalhousie University and my thesis will explore childbearing people’s experiences in living with birth trauma. This work is personal, as I experienced this after birthing, and in doula practice I have witnessed practices that contribute to trauma. I am so proud to be at this point in my career and feel so privileged to be able to continue doing what I love every day while contributing to nursing research.