Saint Elizabeth Home and Community Care Scholarship

My name is Shabneez Xin and I am a Masters of Science thesis student at McMaster University, Registered Nurse, and Patient Services Manager at Ontario Health atHome.   

My professional experience has been devoted to the forgotten members of society. I worked as a home care coordinator for six years, recently stepping into management. The patients we serve are from diverse backgrounds with complex interactions of physical and mental health conditions that affects their ability to thrive in our communities. With limited resources, we create service plans to support their ability and right to independence. Throughout my career, I have felt my influence was limited by the tools available to me. Service delays due to staffing shortages left me powerless and hungry for change, providing the strongest motivation to pursue graduate studies so that I am better prepared to advocate for patients through evidenced based research, leadership, and knowledge translation.  

My research experience has been focused on how to prepare and protect nurses entering the workforce. My thesis research builds upon this, combining my interest in health human resource shortages, with the practice specialty I have grown to love: home health care. I didn’t always recognize home healthcare as a specialty, but my years in this setting have proven how unique and underrepresented we are, and how critical it is to change this.   

I became a nurse so that I could continue to evolve what it means to be a nurse for all those to come.