Life as a nurse: Giving through passion, resilience, and connection

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There are close to half a million nurses in Canada. Victoria Alcuaz and Kim LeBlanc, both of whom have been in the profession for over three decades, belong to that group of people who have dedicated their lives to caring for others.

For Kim, nursing was a fated calling.

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“I come from a very long line of nurses. My mother was a nurse, multiple aunts. I have numerous cousins. My grandmother would have been what we’d call a support worker, or during the Second World War, she worked as what they called a candy striper back then,” she said. “I grew up watching my mother as a nurse and the passion she had for nurses.”

It was a “natural fit” for Kim, and so she followed in the footsteps of the others in her family.

For Victoria, studying pre-med and the sciences allowed her to see what she did and did not want in her career, and she ultimately landed on being a nurse for a couple of reasons.

“I wanted something that’s closer to that action,” she said. “I really want to be part of the solution. I want to serve people. I want to make people feel better, and if I’m gifted with the talent, I was raised Catholic, so therefore I should use that talent for the betterment of the world in general and just do good every day, and I could sleep on that peacefully.”

From humble beginnings in nursing

Nurses must undergo extensive training to prepare for real-world care, and that’s what both Kim and Victoria did, although their experiences weren’t exactly similar.

Kim’s introduction into the field of nursing started with her being a personal support worker as she worked her way through school. During that time, she had the chance to learn from those already in the healthcare industry.

“They took me under the wing and mentored me,” she said. “I worked for them, weekends and evenings, for two years and then when I graduated, I took a job working there, and I worked there until I did my specialty. I had amazing mentors, and it felt like a family.”

As she became more in tune with what it took to be a nurse through real-world experience as opposed to watching others in the career, Kim began to realize that the profession was a wide scope that branched off into many avenues of what she calls “lifelong learning.”

“The role shifted from me being the one getting mentored and having support to me being the one looking out and mentoring other nurses,” she said.

For Victoria, who comes from a family of lawyers, engineers, and teachers, she didn’t realize how vast the nursing profession could be. This led her to the realization that she was “so naïve” when it came to what was really involved in the position.

“Science has to be robust, but there’s also a lot of interpersonal and kind of the ethics of things,” she said. “As you progress with what you know comes bigger responsibility, and I like that you could go to many, many different facets of it.”

Her primary goal at the beginning of her career was creating connections with others while still having fun, and as her career morphed throughout the years, from public to private to everything in between, she began examining how things are done, where they could improve, and what role she could play in fostering change.

“You could serve many ways, from many different angles and still have that main core value that gives you meaning and purpose at the end of the day, whilst living and mirroring a life that you do in practice,” she said. “Being a nurse follows through where I go, whether it’s in a community building or a school building.”

Leaning into lifelong learning and off-the-clock hours

Just like other professions, nurses have their hours they work and the times when they can clock out and go home. That said, it’s not the same for many nurses because leaving the nurse part of themselves at the office isn’t always easy.

“I’m a soccer mom, a hockey mom, a skating mom, you name it,” said Victoria. “Even when I travel, can I turn it off for one second? I’m on vacation, and there’s always something. You know, you go to a church and somebody passes out. You can’t just turn it off, and I think that it’s essential to who I am and what we do as nurses, which is to really look after other people.”

Along with being ready to help anyone, anywhere, nurses are also in a position that requires lifelong learning because they have to continuously advance with the science.

“We are constantly learning, and employers try to make educational events for us so that we constantly are keeping up to date. But, at the same time, we’re self-regulated. So we have to keep up to date. Continuing education is part of our licensure,” said Kim. “It’s been built right into the fabric of being a nurse.”

While work-life balance is crucial for anyone, nurses, in particular, must make time for themselves to do the things that fill their cup. Because, as Victoria, who is also on the board of directors of the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), notes, “you can’t give from an empty tank.”

“So, understanding that, I also made sure that I bring others to that realization or insight. A lot of us know, but kind of don’t realize until you’re in the thick of it, that you are kind of on quicksand and you have to help yourself fast, and so then having that agency is now also one of the things I mirror for, whilst the problems are endless, the challenges are endless.”

Kim notes that her work-life balance is “imbalanced” on her part, as she also serves as the President of the CNA in addition to her clinical and research roles. But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s an honour and a privilege,” she notes, of getting to sit as President at CNA.

Coping with the emotional tolls of nursing

Helping people cope and live with illnesses, whether they are chronic or will heal in a matter of days, can take a heavy toll on nurses. They are constantly working with people, making connections, and saving lives.

For Kim, being able to cope with the job itself doesn’t come down to seeing patients with better prognoses or getting involved in specialties that offer lighter interactions. It should and does fall on the backs of the employers to ensure that each day, they can show up ready to give their all to their patients.

She notes that violence against nurses, poor working conditions, and a lack of flexibility are all issues that can be addressed to lighten the load.

“If it’s a constant negative environment, nurses aren’t going to want to stay,” she said.

She also notes that celebrating the small wins and successes, along with feeling appreciated by their organizations, is a great way to ensure that the passion and joy involved in nursing never dies.

That said, working with patients can also help negate the negative experiences, such as dealing with angry family members, abuse, or aggression from patients.

“They may have been really horrible to you, but then you walk out and you go in to see the next individual that you’ve been working with to navigate their healthcare journey, and they’re so appreciative and they tell you, ‘Oh, you helped save my life,’” said Kim. “We often say that physicians will make the tough diagnosis, but nurses are the ones that we come in and we teach you how to live with that diagnosis and help you navigate your journey. So, it’s those strong winds that really help us, you know, and we want to work to our full scope. That’s so important for nurses.”

For Victoria, coping comes in the form of resilience, something she believes that all nurses must have to be able to handle the profession while staying true to the core of who they are and why they became nurses in the first place.

“I think most nurses, or anybody in healthcare, have a very high resilience, a metre, and we don’t take things lightly, and we do things with our hearts in the right place. We come into the profession understanding that need,” she said.

Improving patient lives while they wait for a better understanding

Nursing may not be for everyone, but when those who can do the profession are given the tools they need to succeed, everybody wins. What makes it worthwhile? The patients’ success.

Kim shares a story about a patient she had once who had an ostomy and was forced to stay housebound because of leakage problems. After this patient came in to have it corrected, they were then able to get their lives back.

“Just having them come back and say, ‘I am now able to do the thing I love,’ that’s the joy of nursing right there,” she said.

Kim also notes that the negativity spouted often in the media about the nursing profession, describing them as angry and burnt out, isn’t necessarily true. Because of what they get to accomplish in others’ lives, she notes that “most nurses love what they do.”

That said, the respect and accolades given to nurses are not as well given as they could be.

“We want people to understand that we have this dynamic, diverse, deeply meaningful practice that there’s no single path and we bring all kinds of experiences and backgrounds with us,” she said. “We want nursing to be seen as a valuable profession by communities to understand that the health of Canada really is dependent on healthy, happy nurses.”

Victoria echoes this sentiment, noting that “passion gets me there” when it comes to putting her energy in areas where she feels the most valued.

“The people that are there on the ground, including nurses, are the ones that kept us all going and kept us all safe, and yet the value that society puts in that is dismal,” she said. “I think now is an opportune time for nurses to really speak up. We are half a million voices strong, and we should make that heard in a very firm and positive way and be part of the solution.”

At the end of the day, through the good and the bad, it’s all about the patients and connections.

“There’s just something with holding one’s hand. You’re being invited, and at the same time, you answer that call to be there and make a difference that way, or that might be the endpoint. But it could be just being seen and heard. Just that connection. I’m allowed to be there. I’m allowed to be curious, ask questions. Listening to whatever is the need for that interaction and really making someone else’s day or someone else’s world be seen and heard. I think that’s fundamental to being a human being.”