50 years of Nursing at Vanier College

Heidi Bakerman (1973), Diane Brooks-Desjardins (1974), Jean Albert (1983), Doreen Machado (1987) and Linda Chipp (1988) look back to the beginning – and what it takes to be a nurse and a nursing teacher

At a time when the nursing profession is challenged in many ways, five Vanier Nursing graduates who are now nursing teachers discuss their stories. Heidi Bakerman came to Vanier in 1970 when the Cegep first opened and was in the very first nursing class ever offered at the Cegep. Three years later, when she graduated from Vanier, she was part of a whole new generation of nurses. Until that first cohort of Cegep Nursing graduates in 1973, all nurses had been trained in nursing schools within hospitals. "We were the first to be educated in a Cegep and we had to prove ourselves. We had to try 200 times harder to prove we were as good as all the nurses who came before us who had been trained in hospitals." It was a time of change, a time of excitement, and the first Vanier nurses were part of that.

The rich possibilities of nursing
Heidi's first job was at the Montreal Neurological Institute, which became her second home for the next few years until she moved to Vancouver. There she worked in a specialized hospital unit dealing with spinal cord injuries then moved to a neonatal intensive care unit. In 1982, she came back to Montreal to work on research at the Kellogg Institute at the Montreal General Hospital. Over the next 7 years, she had some of her four children, worked at different hospitals, got a Masters in Nursing and finally came to teach at Vanier.

Heidi's pathway gives a good idea of the choices open to Nursing graduates: living and working almost anywhere, travelling, working in all aspects of health care, being on research teams, getting graduate degrees, taking various post grad and upgrading courses, developing other skills, teaching, and all the while getting married and having children.

Why become a nurse?
When asked why they became nurses, Diane Brooks-Desjardins who graduated in 1974 declares with joyful vehemence, "I never considered doing anything else but nursing." Jean Albert says, "When I was a child, I was in a significant car accident. While in the operating room, I was frightened. I remember the nurse slipping her hand under the sterile drapes to hold my hand every time I cried. I felt reassured and would stop crying. Years later, when I was discerning my career path, I remembered that nurse and thought that I would like to be able to pay it forward and hold the hands of my own patients one day."

What makes a good nurse?
"It's the quality of the presence at the bedside. That's the art of nursing," says Jean, while Diane adds: "I give my students a poem. It's about days that are difficult, days when you cry, days of joy, but ultimately you don't see yourself doing anything else. Nursing is not a job. It's what you are."

Diane takes that description to heart since she is still working at Vanier even though she officially retired in 2016. It appears Vanier nursing teachers never retire – they come back, fill in for teachers who are absent, or do whatever needs doing in the Nursing Department. To see the joy on the faces of Diane and her colleagues as they talk about their work at Vanier, it is clear that nursing and teaching are what they want to do, indeed what they were born to do.

From Montreal to South Africa
Jean Albert, who graduated from Vanier in 1983, went to work at St Mary's Hospital right after she graduated. "Then in 1985, I moved to the Gynecology Oncology Unit at the Montreal General and stayed for 10 years. In between, I managed to get a Bachelor of Nursing degree at the University of Ottawa." In 1995, adventure beckoned and Jean went off to work a year in a rural clinic in South Africa. When she came back to Montreal, she went right back to the Montreal General Hospital, then moved to the pre op assessment clinic at St Mary's for 10 years, followed by a last stint as a bedside nurse in palliative care at the Jewish General Hospital, until finally coming to teach at Vanier in 2009.

Why become nursing teachers?
"Because you want to share your expertise," says Linda Chipp who was hired by the Montreal Children's Hospital as soon as she graduated in 1988. She then spent a year as a nurse in Lausanne, Switzerland, before coming back to work at the Shriner's Hospital and getting a Bachelor of Nursing degree. "You want to impart something of yourself. You want to see good nurses. You want to nurture them. Vanier had the best reputation and when I came to teach here, I felt I belonged here. I felt I was at home."

What are they trying to impart to their students?
"We want them to be good thinkers and to be compassionate. We want them to have good critical thinking skills and to advocate for their patients. They should always listen to their patient."

"As a nurse, you can make a difference in someone's life every day that you are there. A nurse's sincerity and caring affects patients in ways you don't realize," says Diane. "I got a Facebook message a year ago from a person thanking me for being there when her father passed away. She said, 'You were there for my father and you were there for me…' Patients and their families will remember when you were kind but they will also remember when you were rude."

What makes a good nursing student?
"You should have good social skills and a sense of organization and you need to want to put that at the service of making your corner of the world a better place. Nursing is not for everyone," says Jean. "You have to be resilient, adaptable, disciplined, committed and you must like a challenge."

"As a nurse you will see the best and the worst of people, but you will be touched in a way you can never have imagined. If you like people and want to do something meaningful, you can truly make a difference and there are patients you will never forget your whole life."

The Vanier Nursing Program
Doreen, who had studied Health Science at Vanier before studying nursing at McGill, comments on the quality of the Vanier Nursing Program. "Having gone through a very different program where there was very little guidance or support for nursing students, I find the teachers at Vanier very supportive. They guide students and develop a caring and warm relationship with them. They know their students, and students appreciate that. When you challenge them, they rise to that challenge. Students feel at ease approaching their Vanier teacher for guidance or with any concerns or questions they may have."

"At Vanier, we not only train good nurses, we also teach them to care for themselves as well as others," say Heidi and Jean. "We give them coping skills to deal with stress and avoid burnout. We want them to understand they must deal with their own health at all levels. We are there to support them but once they leave Vanier, they no longer have that support. It can be scary and intimidating the first time you are alone caring for a ward of patients. Our job is to give them the tools to do their job well and feel good about themselves at the end of their day."

Nursing in the modern world
"We encourage our students to go on after Cegep," say Jean. "They can get a bachelor's, or a master's or go all the way to a PhD. They can work on research policy, or work with the government or health organizations as well as in hospitals. They can work pretty well anywhere. Nursing opens up an amazing world of possibilities and because we offer students the option of experiencing nursing in Malawi, all students are sensitized to cultural and healthcare issues beyond our own borders. We tell them to go for it!"