TD Aboriginal Nursing Fund Award – Baccalaureate

My father was a paramedic with the BC Ambulance Service for 20 years and he went on to teach occupational and emergency first aid for another ten years after that. I grew up with a police radio scanner, and my father’s pager, alerting our family to every emergency in our community. Even when he was not on duty, if no one else was immediately available, my father would respond with his personal oversized first aid kit and bring me along to assist him or even direct traffic if needed.  When my father was working, or later teaching, my brother and I were left at home to care for our mother who was chronically ill.

For almost a decade, I was employed in various clerical positions including purchasing, secretarial, and database management. However, I had long held a great desire to return to school and become a nurse.  In 2009, I began taking correspondence courses to meet the nursing program requirements and in 2013, I applied to the University of British Columbia School of Nursing.

While I can see that my experiences as a student may teach me to love another area of nursing, my first instinct and desire is to work in emergency and critical care. I am also interested in seeing more of the world and other cultures, so I hope to eventually do some humanitarian work with Doctors without Borders, the Red Cross, or a similar organization.