Kamloops nurses celebrated for National Nursing Week

Regardless of the challenges they face, nurses employed at Royal Inland Hospital continue to work tirelessly for the sake of their patients.

Nurses are often found at the bedside, ensuring their patients are both healthy and comfortable.

Lara Dixon is one of many nurses being celebrated during National Nursing Week. Her job is to help patients navigate the system from admission to discharge.

“We help transition them through the trajectory of their care and ultimately make sure they’re linked up with the right care services when they’re discharged home,” Dixon said.

One of Dixon’s patients was 94 year old Nora Morrison, who said the nursing staff was “absolutely fabulous.”

“They’re here way beyond the time of duty,” Morrison said. “And they just can’t do enough for you. They’re always there, you ring your bell and there’s right somebody there.”

Despite the usual smiles on their faces, nurses are often overworked and face a multitude of challenges throughout the day.

“There’s challenges for nurses everyday, from their patient assignment to overflow patients,” Lauren Kembel, manager of the RIH Renal Program said.

“But they rise up to the occasion. They take care of the patients to the best of their ability and they’re very valued.”

Operating nurse, Gail Kopp believes the right steps are being taken to recruit more nurses.

“I think that we’ve done a good job in making the nursing profession appealing to a lot of new people,” Kopp said. “I think the universities are doing a good job of training a lot of nurses. But I think it’s not just RNs, it’s also LPNs, it’s also nursing care aides. So I think we could always use more nurses because it’s very busy.”

Nurses require ongoing training to keep up with ever changing technology.

Nancy Garrett-Petts provides some of that training at Royal Inland Hospital. She understands how stressful a nurse’s job can be.

“We recognize the need to support cumulative stress with our staff and the need to have some element of fun in the workday,” Garrett-Petts said.

“As an educator I try to work that into things to provide education in sort of a fun way so that we aren’t living in that constant stress all the time.”

Despite all the challenges nurses face on a daily basis, there are also many rewards to be reaped.

“Just the experiences that I’ve had over the last many years has just been awesome and nursing is one of those things where you never know what you’re going to learn in a day,” Lara Dixon said.

“You learn something new every day and you get to work with just amazing people whether they’re your clients patients, or even your team members. It is very rewarding.”

There are currently 1,900 nursing staff employed at Royal Inland Hospital.

by Jill Sperling

Kamloops nurses celebrated for National Nursing Week

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