{"id":78141,"date":"2022-05-11T13:07:59","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T17:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=78141"},"modified":"2022-05-12T09:21:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T13:21:41","slug":"brock-prepares-future-nurses-for-challenges-in-the-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2022\/05\/brock-prepares-future-nurses-for-challenges-in-the-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock prepares future nurses for challenges in the field"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a dream Sierra Smith began nurturing at the age of four with the premature birth of her younger sister.<\/p>\n

Her sibling\u2019s diagnosis of hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy meant the family made many visits to Toronto\u2019s SickKids Hospital over the years. And during that time, it was always nurses who provided the comfort and stability the family badly needed, Smith recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the nurse who came in multiple times and answered my mom and dad\u2019s questions or gave me a colouring book to keep me occupied,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought, \u2018I really want to do that job.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, May 11, Smith was among 105 soon-to-be graduates who received their pins in Brock\u2019s annual Pinning Ceremony, a tradition harkening back to the days of Florence Nightingale\u2019s efforts to recognize nurses\u2019 training and welcome them into the profession.<\/p>\n

Smith is taking everything she learned at Brock to her new nursing job \u2014 at SickKids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so thankful for my education at Brock and I’m very excited to start my career,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

It may seem like a tough time to launch a nursing career, with frequent reports of nurses being undervalued, exhausted and leaving the profession in droves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re in a period where you can barely go a day without hearing about nursing in the news,\u201d says Department of Nursing Chair Karyn Taplay. \u201cIt highlights things in the profession that are challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt brings to light the urgency of the lack of nurses that we have regionally, nationally and globally,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve been saying for a long time we need more nurses and now it’s starting to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taplay says Brock University has \u201canswered the call\u201d by expanding the Nursing program<\/a> to bring in \u201cmore nurses than we have ever brought in before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associate Professor of Nursing Sheila O\u2019Keefe-McCarthy\u2019s career spans 40 years. She agrees the challenges being highlighted today have always existed but haven\u2019t received the spotlight they\u2019ve experienced in recent times.<\/p>\n

One unwavering aspect of the profession that has never changed, she says, is that nurses are the integral, vibrant \u201cconduit\u201d to a strong health-care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nurse-client relationship is the essence of humanity seen in its full form, in whatever stage of health, wellness, illness or death,\u201d says O\u2019Keefe-McCarthy.<\/p>\n

Core to that concept \u2014 and foundational to Brock\u2019s Nursing program \u2014 is that nursing involves much more than just mastering and applying the technical skills to bring about healing. It\u2019s all about relationship building \u2014 a topic Elizabeth Orr covers extensively in her first-year Nursing course.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really focus on in nursing is creating that family-centred or individualized care plan, where you really get to know the strengths of the patient and the family,\u201d says the Assistant Professor of Nursing, who is also a pediatric nurse.<\/p>\n

Orr says the pandemic has highlighted several \u201csilver linings\u201d to the nursing profession.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s much greater awareness of the many public health roles and activities nurses conduct outside of the hospital, she says, with nurses \u201cfinding their voice\u201d to advocate for themselves and their role in the health system.<\/p>\n

Orr, Taplay and O\u2019Keefe-McCarthy note how nurses have further expanded their skill sets by having to master social media and new technologies and procedures.<\/p>\n

Smith describes her experience working with a technology called \u2018Angel Eye\u2019 in the neonatal ward at South Lake Regional Health Centre during her pre-graduation clinical placement at the height of COVID.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of parents couldn\u2019t come in, so we had iPads and phones and we were sending them pictures throughout the day or doing FaceTimes to keep parents in contact, because it’s not easy for parents not to be able to visit their babies,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In Brock\u2019s Nursing program, students are exposed to technologies and procedures in safe learning environments, says Taplay.<\/p>\n

The labs simulate situations including pediatric asthma, palliative care and medical emergencies, such as cardiac or respiratory arrest, as well as many others.<\/p>\n

Smith says these simulations enabled her and her peers to ask questions and explore in a supportive environment.<\/p>\n

She is bringing to her new job a commitment to viewing the patient as a whole person.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a nurse, you need to learn skills like inserting an IV and giving medications, but you also need to know how to speak with somebody and how to listen to them,\u201d Smith says. \u201cIt’s always those little moments that we were always taught are really important to build those relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a dream Sierra Smith began nurturing at the age of four with the premature birth of her younger sister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":78142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,7,3319,1,4],"tags":[8791,488,11555,7488,8452,11554,11557,4887,11556],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78157,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78141\/revisions\/78157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}