![\"A](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/GracePyatt01-1050x700.jpg\")
Senior women\u2019s volleyball player Grace Pyatt (centre) has played a key role in the Brock Badgers returning to the national championships.<\/p><\/div>\n
The experience was \u201cunforgettable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Pyatt credits her volleyball teammates for playing a key role in her successful pursuit of higher education, which has continued with additional courses beyond graduation.<\/p>\n
\u201cPursuing my master\u2019s meant I got to come back and play another year, which means everything in the world to me,\u201d said the five-time Academic All-Canadian. \u201cHere at Brock, I\u2019m surrounded by 14 other women who are passionate about creating change, changing Niagara and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season, Pyatt was a key member of the Brock women\u2019s volleyball team\u2019s first perfect regular season since 1989-90.<\/p>\n
The Badgers went on an impressive playoff run as they captured their first OUA Championship title in program history and competed at the U SPORTS Women\u2019s Volleyball national tournament in Calgary.<\/p>\n
Pyatt credits her coaches and teammates for keeping her grounded while balancing her life as a student-athlete while in the Nursing program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes mental fortitude and was an adjustment bouncing between the two. I relied heavily on my teammates at times, especially when I was a younger nurse,\u201d she said. \u201cGoing into the team room after a hard shift, there was always someone there to listen and give me a hug if I had to just cry for a minute. My teammates kept me grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pyatt would often have to switch gears, going from a nursing shift at the hospital to volleyball practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been amazing to watch Grace develop as an athlete, but even more so as a human. During the height of the pandemic, I watched her walk into practice after working a 12-hour shift in her nursing placement,\u201d said head coach Steve Delaney. \u201cThe fact that she could step onto a volleyball court after working all day in an environment full of sickness, illness and death was incredible to witness. I admire her a lot for doing that. I\u2019m proud to have her on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the end of her Nursing studies, Pyatt had 10 clinical placements under her belt focused on areas such as medical, surgical, long-term care, community mental health, pediatrics and labour and delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work-place experience was amazing \u2014 and an emotional rollercoaster,\u201d she said. \u201cI went from performing wound care on surgical, emptying drains, to C-section or helping catch in labour and delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pyatt draws inspiration and influence from her mother, Barbara, who is a nurse in Niagara Health\u2019s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since I was little, I\u2019ve wanted to be like my mom. I thought I wanted to work with babies like her,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I did my clinical placement, I enjoyed working with babies and labour and delivery, but I found I loved working with geriatrics. I\u2019m so passionate about the well-being of older adults and seniors.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a Master of Applied Gerontology student, Pyatt worked at Hotel Dieu Shaver this past summer to research culturally appropriate palliative care and interventions for hospital staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt a bond with older patients,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In 2021, Pyatt helped her mother and uncle Brian serve as the primary caregivers for her grandmother, Birdell, for the last two years of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking after my grandmother in those final moments is where my interest in health care for geriatrics originated from,\u201d Pyatt said. \u201cPalliative care was a \u2018wake-up\u2019 moment, but I quickly viewed it as a privilege to be with, support and comfort someone in their final moments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brock is the No. 2 seed for the upcoming U SPORTS Championships and opens the quarter-finals against the host school, the University of British Columbia, on Friday, March 17 at 9 p.m. EST.<\/p>\n
All games from the eight-team competition will be webcast live on\u00a0CBC Sports<\/a>\u00a0digital platforms and\u00a0USPORTS.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As she stares down her last chance at a national title with the Brock Badgers, Grace Pyatt (BScN \u201921, MAG \u201922) said a U SPORTS Championship ring would be a fitting piece of hardware to pair alongside her two degrees from the University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":84231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,36,188,55,1],"tags":[3333,12514,256,4437,607,5541,34,582,7584,4620],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84229"}],"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\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84232,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84229\/revisions\/84232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}