National Nursing Week

6 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2017 COMPASSIONATE & COMMITTED THE FACE OF HEALTH CARE AT THE BEDSIDE By Mike Daly / Winnipeg Regional Health Authority As a child, Ken Borce was no stranger to the health-care system. But what he learned during those years set his feet on the path to a career in nursing. "I was a sickly, asthmatic kid when I was young — a frequent flyer in the pediatrician's office – and the nurses who helped me really inspired me because they were there to provide quality care and calm me down." Now, many years later, Ken is Manager of Patient Care at the Intermediate Intensive Care Unit (IICU) at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre, leading a team of 35 nurses and health- care support staff. "It sounds fluffy, but what attracted me to nursing is that I really do enjoy helping other people," he says. "It gets me going when I know at the end of the day that I was able to help save a life. I'm the first health-care provider in my family — I come from a family of engineers and business people — and being in health care is really inspiring. The perceived 'simple things' nurses do can really change a life." The IICU is a six-bed unit caring for patients from all ICUs in the city who require intensive therapy to be liberated from mechanical ventilation. These patients are past the acute phase of their critical illness but still require comprehensive care. And while the IICU team uses a variety of the latest medical technologies to care for their patients, Borce says the human factor is still the most important tool for nurses. "We are the constant face of health care at the bedside," he says. "Even if we have a $10 million piece of equipment at our disposal, if we don't treat the patient as a person, if we don't treat them with dignity, if we don't respect them as a person, that equipment is rendered useless. If we don't treat the patient as a person, then we're missing the point of our profession." That's something his entire nursing staff understands, Borce adds. "We have a great group of people who are really engaged, compassionate, competent, committed, and who look forward to providing the best care to patients and their families," he says. "I find that inspiring, because we aren't limited to typical nursing tasks, but are willing to go that extra mile to talk to patients, talk to the family members, and encourage them to be part of the care team. We make sure the patients are the active drivers of their care." It's a rewarding part of what can, at times, be a difficult job. "I'd be lying if I said there was no stress," Borce says. "There is always stress from many different factors, but what I can see from my team is that they have resilience. Yes, we experience stress, but we know we want to come back tomorrow with a smile because there is a person in that bed who needs our care." ✚ "I WAS A SICKLY, ASTHMATIC KID WHEN I WAS YOUNG — A FREQUENT FLYER IN THE PEDIATRICIAN'S OFFICE – AND THE NURSES WHO HELPED ME REALLY INSPIRED ME BECAUSE THEY WERE THERE TO PROVIDE QUALITY CARE AND CALM ME DOWN." #YESThisIsNursing MAY 8-14, 2017 NATIONAL NURSING WEEK 2017 PHOTO BY NATASHA WOLOSCHUK / WINNIPEG REGIONAL HEALTH AUTHORITY While you won't find Diane Kading in "scrubs" at a bedside on a hospital ward, she is still very much a nurse working to improve the lives of the people under her care. For the past 27 years, Kading has worked as a nurse at the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre (MATC), which provides a range of mental health services to children and adolescents who experience mental health challenges. "I work with MATC's Intensive Community Re-Integration Service (ICRS), which provides services and treatment to children and adolescents on the autistic spectrum or with attention deficits who have been having difficulty in their home or school life," she says. "I'm a dual-qualified nurse, so I work as both a registered nurse and a registered psychiatric nurse, which tend to be very different roles," Kading adds. "Working in an interprofessional team is great as it enables us to blend our perspectives to improve outcomes for our clients and their families. "Generally speaking, the kids we work with are having difficulty functioning in their community schools and that's why they've come to our program. They either weren't attending school, or were in a separate room working with an educational assistant or other support person because they couldn't cope in a regular classroom setting. Many of them have been bullied or never had a friend, for example." The overall goal of the program, she says, is to return the child to their home and community school better equipped to function in those environments. "We provide them with skills and coping strategies that help them navigate difficulties in terms of their social interactions with peers, their ability to focus, and their ability to manage anxiety." Kading typically works with children ages 11-17 for a period of a year to 18 months. "They participate in a day program where their time is split between a school program and a group program," she says "The families also attend therapy while their child is in care to help them develop skills to support their child at home." The results are gratifying, Kading says. "Success means that the child graduates from our program, returns to a regular classroom, and is able to focus on their work and progress in the school system. They also develop a peer group in the community and have better relationships with their friends and families." Kading says she was first encouraged to pursue nursing by her mother when she was in her early teens. Then, "a good friend of mine had a 'breakdown' when we were just 16. I didn't fully understand it, so I was on a quest to see how I could help her. That was the spark for working in this field; I really wanted to help teenagers who had similar difficulties. It became a passion." Decades later, she has no regrets. "It's a joy working with adolescents," she says. "A lot of our success is relationship-based. Helping them develop their skills and abilities to the point where they believe they can be successful is just so important for these kids. It is a very rewarding place to work." ✚ NURSING ADOLESCENTS TO BETTER MENTAL HEALTH By Mike Daly / Winnipeg Regional Health Authority PHOTO BY NATASHA WOLOSCHUK / WINNIPEG REGIONAL HEALTH AUTHORITY A NEW LEASE ON LIFE

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