Reflection on my Journey into Nursing

I have had a very non-linear journey to get into the Trent nursing program. Out of high-school, I was accepted to Queen’s University for their Biochemistry program. I loved it there. I spent four years diving deep into organic chemistry, biochemistry, protein structure and function. In my fourth year, I was fortunate enough to participate in a research thesis in Dr. Edmond Chan’s lab. As much as I loved (and still love) biochemistry, I knew research wasn’t exactly for me, I craved a high-intensity healthcare setting.

I was also a residence don for three-years, a position where I was supporting students living in residence, responding to crisis situations, intervening in poor student conduct, and getting woken up about a million times to the on-call phone. Throughout this experience, I had a small taste of what it was like to respond to emergency medical situations, respond to mental health crises and engage in teamwork and problem-solving. This was the closest thing to healthcare I experienced, and even throughout the sleepless nights, I couldn’t let it go – something told me I was supposed to end up in healthcare.

In my summers, I am a tree-planter. This job involves planting as many trees as you physically can in a day, all the while you are covered in mud, slept in a tent on the cold ground, it’s snowing and raining at the same time, and your entire body hurts.  Most days we were upwards of a 2-hour drive away from the nearest medical professional. In response to this, I was also the primary first-aid attendant. Most of the time my job was straightforward, providing physiotherapy taping modalities to planters with tendonitis. This role taught me the acute importance of the interdisciplinary team approach, as I was able to use first-aid and physiotherapy techniques. Through this experience, I anecdotally found planters had better outcomes when I was educated in both disciplines. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the multidisciplinary education approach in healthcare is well-utilized, particularly in the rural setting, where resources may be limited (Reed, et. al., 2021). I had gained firsthand experience of this benefit, being in a remote setting applying my education beyond my first-aid scope, only to then solidify this in the first semester at Trent. My job became even more interesting when a crew member had an anaphylactic reaction to a wasp sting and had to be air-evacuated by helicopter to the nearest hospital. This is when I knew this was the area in which I wanted to dedicate my future. This lit a fire in me, so I applied to medical and nursing school.

From there, I decided nursing fit into my lifestyle better than any other career in healthcare. For the next year, I learned to fly helicopters because I wanted to get as much experience in the field I could. I only got 14 hours into my 100-hour licence until I got a job as a patient-transfer attendant. One of my first jobs in this role was transporting a spinal-fracture patient off the air ambulance from Sudbury, ON originating in remote QC. I received report from an flight paramedic and flight nurse. This experience brought together aspects of paramedicine and nursing for me, where both can occupy pre-hospital roles to deliver critical care (Jansson et. al, 2021). Jansson et. al. suggest that by continually learning, both nurses and paramedics contribute a unique pre-hospital environment that leads to better health outcomes for patients extracted from extreme circumstances, which is positively correlated with increases in education (2021). This aspect of nursing, particularly flight nursing, fits within my passion to continually learn throughout my career. Although I struggled further with the debate between nursing and paramedicine, I consulted current nurses and paramedics and found that nursing was the right way to accomplish my goals.

In my future self-regulating practice, I would like to include multiple ways of knowing, particularly, the storytelling way of knowing, a key tool used in flight nursing teams (Myers, 2022). A qualitative study conducted by Myers suggests that, although there are many empirical ways to share knowledge, flight nurses use more ambiguous cues from patient information, and often share with other nurses how to determine these findings through storytelling (2022). I would like to combine this technique with the CNO’s guideline for for therapeutic nurse-patient relationships, where the CNO describes this relationship to involve trust, respect, power, professional intimacy and empathy (CNO, 2006). From my own experience in personal and professional relationships, I rely heavily on trust and respect in my communication style. This is something I want to be able to apply to my practice, and incorporate into the storytelling model. So far in the Trent nursing program, I have seen these reflected in the course material, which has excited me to continue on this path, continue to challenge myself and strive for excellence in this and future programs.

For me, all these experiences have contributed puzzle pieces into the image I have in my mind for my future practice as a self-regulating nurse. I would like to incorporate the rural and remote areas of pre-hospital care I saw while tree-planting. I would like to utilize the science and research behind human disease. I would like the environment of ever-shifting, intense pre-hospital care, combined with the critical aspects of hospital care. I would like to engage in interprofessional collaboration between healthcare disciplines. I would like to lead the respectful, healing patient relationships. I would like to participate in continual learning. Where do all of these things intersect? Nursing.

The further I get into nursing, the more I know it is for me. I am excited to continue on this path, contribute in a meaningful way, deliver competent, compassionate care, and participate in lifelong learning.