December 14, 2022
RNFBC
This award was founded in memory of Bernadet Ratsoy by her husband along with contributions from her many colleagues and friends. A well respected Nurse and Educator with a 28 year career at St. Paul’s Hospital culminating in the role of Vice President of Nursing, as Executive Director of the Alberta Association of Registered Nurses and finishing her career in 2002 as Associate Dean of the School of Health Sciences at BCIT.
This award is for a student at the Graduate preferably enrolled in a graduate program leading to a Masters’ or Doctoral degree with an emphasis on Health care Management or Administration or a graduate program leading to a Masters’ or Doctoral degree specializing in Obstetrics or Pediatrics.
This year’s winner shares the impact of receiving this award.
To the donors of the Bernadet Ratsoy Memorial Bursary,
My name is Ali, and I am a recipient of this bursary. I would like to take this time to thank you for your support as part of my journey to becoming the nurse I am today. I understand that this bursary was founded in memory of Bernadet Ratsoy by her husband along with contributions from her many colleagues and friends. She appears to have accomplished so much as a nurse and educator during her time as a nurse, and I can only hope one day to do the same.
I was enrolled in the Master of Nursing – Leadership in Professional Practice program over the course of 2021-2022. I took this program because I am interested in pursuing leadership positions in nursing, both formally and informally, and I knew that this Master’s program was the perfect for fit my goals. I just recently graduated in September, and I am very glad that I took this program because it was very rewarding and taught me a lot! This program allowed me to gain very valuable insight on, theoretically, how to analyze and integrate theories, models, concepts, and frameworks for leadership in nursing within multiple domains of practice, and how to develop an in-depth theoretical and experiential understanding of leadership in nursing. The program also helped me develop knowledge for leadership and helped support my learning in the evolution of the health system and health policy using research findings. At the end of the program, I was able to participate in a practicum that focused on creating a guidance document regarding health equity – a topic that I am very passionate about.
I work in Vancouver’s downtown eastside, a place where healthcare needs to focus on health equity now more than ever. I am very passionate about ensuring that models of care are used to ensure that health equity can be practiced in this setting, such as trauma and violence informed care, harm reduction, amongst others. My final practicum thus allowed me to focus on my passions while also providing me with the opportunity to contribute this to nursing practice. I hope to help influence policies and procedures in my practice, and I hope to do so by becoming an educator and leader.
Since this is not the first university degree I completed, and I have paid my own way through nursing school and this degree, I have a lot of student debt, so this bursary is greatly appreciated as I start down the path to paying this debt off.
Thank you again for your continued support to nurses like myself. I am very grateful.
Sincerely,
Ali Hicks