Lynda Balneaves completed her PhD at UBC in 2002 and began working in the School of Nursing immediately as a tenure-track faculty member, having fast-tracked through her BSN, MN, and PhD. Lynda loves research and received outstanding mentorship during her PhD program at UBC, particularly from her former supervisor, Dr. Joan Bottorff. Lynda reflects that the UBC PhD program “pushed” her thinking about theory and the philosophy of science and nursing. Lynda’s previous nursing education had been very pragmatic and focused mainly on the practical skills of nursing, so “thinking about thinking” truly expanded her horizons, helping her to understand how knowledge in nursing is created, and taught her how to be reflective and inquiring in her work.

Lynda’s undergraduate degree was in science, specifically, Zoology, and as much as she enjoyed it, it took measuring the wing spans of mosquitoes one summer, while working on an acid rain research project, to realize science alone wasn’t going to be satisfying enough for her. She wanted a career that promised more interpersonal contact and a chance “to make a difference” in individuals’ lives. Also, a family member’s illness and regular hospitalization during her BSc gave Lynda a chance to observe nurses at work and recognize their autonomy and very specialized disciplinary knowledge. Lynda also valued the incredible flexibility and variety in nurses’ work and realized that nursing could offer her many diverse opportunities as a profession.

Lynda came to UBC for her PhD because she loved the city of Vancouver, but more importantly, because the scholarly expertise she wanted was here. Both Drs. Sally Thorne and Joan Bottorff had expertise and active research programs in the area of cancer research. This was the field she had already worked in during her MN and what she wanted to pursue academically, with a specific focus on the role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in cancer care. Lynda completed her PhD from 1996-2002, while also expanding her interprofessional teaching skills as a teaching assistant in the SON and as a Tutor in the UBC Medical Program. She also had a chance to hone her research skills by working on numerous research studies as a graduate research assistant and project director throughout her PhD program.

Lynda is passionate about research because she “…loves asking questions, exploring the unknown, and because every day in research is different - you are always creating new knowledge, you have autonomy, and you get to follow your interests!” Taken together, all of these characteristics of research make for a very flexible and rewarding career. Lynda shares her enthusiasm for research by teaching the Critical Inquiry and Evidence-Based Practice courses to undergraduate and Master’s students, where she hopes to convey the message that, “You can’t provide excellent nursing care without research and the evidence it provides.”

In terms of her research accomplishments, Lynda is most proud of the Complementary Medicine Education and Outcomes (CAMEO) research program, which is focused on developing evidence-based education and decision support interventions to help cancer patients and their families make safe and informed decisions about CAM. She sees this program as a way of building a bridge between clinical practice and research and addressing an important gap in cancer care. She is an Affiliate Nurse Scientist at the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA) and has made alliances with nursing colleagues, like Tracy Truant who is the Regional Professional Practice Leader, Nursing at the BCCA (and another UBC alumni), which enables her to move programs, such as CAMEO, forward in clinical settings. The mission of the CAMEO project is to have every patient who comes through the door at the BCCA assessed for CAM use, have an opportunity to ask questions about CAM, and have those questions addressed, based on current evidence. In so doing, it is hoped that patients receive the best possible care and advice regarding how to safely use CAM as part of their cancer journey.

At the end of the day, Lynda says she “works hard and plays hard.” She is very physically active, loving sports of all kinds. She has currently begun taking a Tae Kwon Do class, partly because skiing is over for the season! She has also been active in competitive dragon boat racing, having competed nationally until she hurt her back, still coming in 5th! She loves cross country skiing, reading, going to live music events, working out, and spending time with her family and friends. “I have a very full life!”

Aaron Bates (BSN '08), applied to the UBC BSN program from Guatemala. As the country representative for Pueblo Partisans - a small Vancouver Island-based non-governmental organization - he designed a community development strategy for a displaced indigenous population and provided cultural interpretation, leadership and Spanish-English interpretation for visiting nurses doing clinical training there. His decision to become a nurse developed from those experiences.

"I provided translations of traumas and the rudimentary framework to understand the context of an individual's particular pains, yet it was the nurses who were able to make these patients feel better by providing some physical relief," he recalls. "I wished to integrate my experiences in Guatemala and translate them into meaningful social action. I could think of no better way of doing so than by dedicating myself to a career in nursing."

During his program, Aaron had the opportunity for direct clinical learning in a variety of diverse settings. Perhaps the most influential was the Bella Coola General Hospital in the Bella Coola Valley on the central coast of British Columbia during his final clinical course. "It was a slice of our country that I had not previously experienced; I saw the human side of conditions we had been guided to explore at UBC. I was able to offer my nursing knowledge to a population that, nearly without exception, was welcoming and appreciative of my efforts."

As a new graduate, Aaron continues to seek opportunities that will challenge him to explore his capacity to make a difference as a registered nurse. He has taken a position at Dartmouth General Hospital in Nova Scotia. "I've enjoyed this, perhaps more than any nursing I have yet done. We see all of humanity. We never really know what is going to happen. We don't see people at their best, yet we have the privilege of entering into the most intimate parts of peoples' lives and assisting in their care. Nurses, physicians and other staff respect each other's unique knowledge and unique roles. And, there is so much to learn."

At the Faculty of Applied Science congregation ceremony in November 2008, Aaron was chosen as the student speaker for the graduating class. In his address, he spoke to his own passion for nursing and recognized comparable commitment that all graduates within the Faculty of Applied Science - which includes nursing, architecture and landscape architecture, and engineering - have for their interconnected capacity to contribute meaningfully to the betterment of society. "We are as diverse as those whom we strive to serve. We are motivated by so much, in our choice of this caring, and trying, profession. We recognize that our universal humanity is perhaps best expressed when we are at our most vulnerable, and require the intimate care of strangers."

Jacalyn Brown (BSN ’01) age 37, lives in Burnaby B.C. and is a Registered Nurse in the Cardiac Care Unit at St. Paul’s Hospital. She has been curling for 15 years and loves both the competition aspect of the sport, and her team. She plays Lead for Team Mallatt. Her career highlight was winning her first B.C. women’s title.

On February 28th, 2009, Team Mallet represented British Columbia in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts – the Canadian Women's Curling Championship. Leading the way through the competition, Brown’s team came second only to Team Canada, the defending Canadian and world championship team from Winnipeg.

Jacalyn curls out of the Royal City Curling Club and has curled for 15 years. She has attended the 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006 Women’s Provincial Championships and in 2001 was the Women’s Provincial Champion. In 2000 and 2007 she was the Mixed Provincial Champion. Jacalyn enjoys running, crafting, motorcycles and reading.

Please click here to view a news release on the tournament.

"My interest in improving health care stems from my desire to really make a difference for patients and for the people who live in our community," says Sue Carpenter. Sue is a 2005 graduate of the UBC MSN program delivered in collaboration with Thompson Rivers University (TRU). Her capstone degree project was an examination of the impact of emergency room overcrowding on staff and patients and proposing solutions. "I studied what other countries were doing to address emergency department congestion," says Sue. "Historically, emergency departments tend to be the ones left to deal with congestion. The more the system can be involved-acute care, home care, community, etc.-the more help there is to solve the problem. We need to be sure the system recognizes that emergency patients are everyone's responsibility."

In her capacity as Corporate Director of Emergency Services for the Interior Health Authority, Sue works with 35 emergency departments across the region. "Because we have several small rural communities, access to service and sustainability of coordinated service are very important." An idea that Sue uncovered as a result of her MSN project was the creation of multidisciplinary "access and flow" teams including senior leadership. Toward this end, Sue and colleagues sponsored a series of "Decongestion Forum" sessions. At each, invited physicians, nurses and other health care professionals were challenged with the question "What would you do in your own sector of health care in order to decrease the emergency congestion?" These initiatives stimulated working together to share the responsibility of congestion and to create proactive solutions. Although there is no "quick fix," says Sue, "we are seeing incremental differences." Her colleagues, however, see these initiatives as having province-wide impact. Recently, they acknowledged Sue's work in this area with the Thompson Rivers University Distinguished Alumni Award for professional achievement.

Sue has also been active in further key initiatives to resolve health care system challenges. Faced with an unexpectedly high potential rate of attrition among nurses in the ICU, Sue organized in-house critical care training programs in partnership with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and the provincial government. Drawing on evidence from the literature, she also helped shape a new strategy for helping with staffing shortages. By "over hiring," or assigning an extra nurse on each shift to provide vacation and sick relief, she demonstrated that it was possible to reduce last minute relief nurse requirements. "At the beginning it was difficult to convince everyone of the program's value because of the risk in paying for an extra shift," says Sue. "However, I knew it was right. Our casual nurses wanted full-time and this gave us the opportunity to build relief into the schedule."

"Sue has led Interior Health Emergency Services in directions that many individuals within the system thought were not possible," says Tom Fulton, Professional Practice Leader and Chief Nursing Officer, Interior Health Authority. "Our multiple and culturally varied emergency departments have been drawn together to work collaboratively on system-wide approaches to unending challenges. Sue has been able to facilitate these diverse groups and support them in identifying common issues and solutions."

Sue recognizes the influence graduate education has had on her ability to advance patient and staff care within Interior Health. "The UBC/TRU cooperative was a great opportunity for me. I had just started my new full-time role as Corporate Director of Emergency Services, so this provided me with the opportunity to live at home and enroll in the program," she says. "It was great to have a program coordinator who lived in Kamloops as well."

Sharon Simpson, Assistant Professor at the TRU School of Nursing and on-site program coordinator for the Kamloops-based students, agrees that the joint initiative has been an excellent opportunity. "Many nurses in our community have told us they could not have obtained a graduate degree if this opportunity had not been made available," Sharon says. "I know that other faculty members in our School have also been involved in the UBC program in ways that have expanded their learning." For Sue, returning to complete her master's degree at UBC has given her the confidence she required to take on a more senior position within her local Health Authority and to develop care delivery programs with the potential to really make a difference. "It is great to have an impact on clinical care from this position and to continue to improve the experience for both staff and patients."

Extracted from TouchPoints, January 2007, "Caring for the Health Care System"

“Amazingly enough, it is coming up to the five year anniversary of my graduation from the UBC School of Nursing in April this year, “ says Alison. With a passion for both people, science and human physiology, she had completed an undergrad degree in Physiology and wanted to work in a health promotion related area after graduating. “I tried research but decided I wanted to work more directly with people, in a teaching and therapeutic capacity.” She spent a number of years working in fitness and human resource related administration and then decided on nursing as a path to more clinically related health promotion work.

Upon starting nursing school, her intention was to eventually pursue work in public health, “I became very interested in acute medicine through my time in the program and worked my first year after graduating in acute medicine at VGH. I had a concurrent interest in maternal/newborn health, so had focused my avenues option in maternity.”

After working casually in acute medicine for a year, Alison started working casually in post partum at BC Women's for some time as well. The shift work was not a good fit for me, so she decided to pursue her interest in public health nursing sooner than she had anticipated. She moved to Raven Song Community Health Centre and has been working there with the Infant Child & Youth Team ever since. “My work focuses on children ages newborn to five years old and their families,” says Alison. “I love my work. It involves a wide range of activities from post partum home visits to growth and development assessment, immunization administration and counselling, as well as working with families to connect them with appropriate resources in their communities, building their capacity to thrive in the multiple determinant of health areas. It has also been a highlight to join the clinical instructor team at UBC. I've been involved in the maternity course, spending the day with students doing post partum maternal and newborn care in the community setting.”

One of Alison’s recent successes has been establishing a "Nurses on Bikes" program funded through Vancouver Coastal Health's Innovation Funds, which allows nurses to use their bikes for their work related contacts in the community.

Christine Fantuz graduated from the UBC School of Nursing in 2007 and presently works in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for the Calgary Health Region in addition to a position as a clinical instructor at Mt. Royal College, teaching first-year students in their BN program.

During the nursing program at UBC, Christine did field placements in a number of nursing specialty areas such as maternity, mental health and geriatrics, and was surprised at how the tools from each aspect of nursing transferred into the next. During an international placement in Nepal with fellow graduate Julia Iwama, Christine was able to share information from her leadership and management course. "Julia and I didn't bring any notes with us from that class because we figured we wouldn't need them in Nepal, but there we were talking about change theory, organizational charts and transformational leadership because the hospital would soon renovate and expand."

One of Christine's long range plans is more international relief work -- to provide care in Third World countries to children, to orphans or to whomever is in need. "Wherever you go, people need health care," she said. And in Nepal, where the life expectancy is 48.9 years, Christine believes they could also benefit from education. "I really believe that education is the root to making a difference," she said. "I'm not a believer in doing 'for,' but rather in doing 'with.' I'd like to be able to empower people and get them excited to make positive health changes in their lives."

Christine was awarded the Karen Elaine Florence Madsen Memorial Scholarship in 2007-- an award given by the School of Nursing to a final year student who shows not only outstanding personal qualities but high academic achievement and a true dedication to the nursing profession. "When I saw the award online, understood the reasons for it, and recognized that it had been recommended by the faculty I was ecstatic, honoured and overwhelmed," she said. "When it arrived, I was trying to figure out how I could possibly finance my clinical learning in Nepal," said Christine. "I was determined to complement my nursing education with an international experience in a Third World country so this award helped immensely."

"I feel very fortunate," she said; and the School feels fortunate to have graduates like Christine who combine their life experience with new learning to offer thoughtful, compassionate and effective care to those in need wherever they find them.