Student Success
The Start of a Healthy Career “Class sizes are small – everyone gets to know each other, and there’s a lot of personal attention from professors. They do everything they can to help you succeed and give you unique opportunities to learn.” Megan Heroux
Megan Heroux (BHSc ’12) loves her job as a Health Promotion Facilitator with Alberta Health Services in Lethbridge. She’s doing exactly the kind of work she’s always wanted to do, and says she wouldn’t be where she is if not for the public health program at the University of Lethbridge. Heroux transferred into public health after completing two years in the nursing program at the University of Saskatchewan. She quickly discovered that her interests lay more in the way of prevention as opposed to treatment. Once in public health, Heroux knew immediately that she’d made a great move. “There’s a sense of camaraderie among faculty and students,” says Heroux of the U of L’s program. “Class sizes are small – everyone gets to know each other, and there’s a lot of personal attention from professors. They do everything they can to help you succeed and give you unique opportunities to learn.” Heroux’s degree program included an applied study with the South West Alberta Community Loan Fund, which sparked an interest in assisting low-income families. In the fall of 2011, Heroux began a full-time, fourmonth practicum with Alberta Health Services Population Health in Medicine Hat, Alta. Among her duties were food security projects and helping with Project Homeless Connect.
Megan Heroux
“It was a totally invaluable experience,” says Heroux of the practicum. “I learned so many things that you can’t learn in school. It definitely helped me to get the position I’m working in now. I’m so thankful to Sharon Yanicki, the program co-ordinator, for finding that placement for me. Sharon goes above and beyond to make sure students always land in places that will be a great fit and benefit them most in the long run.” Heroux served as co-president of the Public Health Students’ Association for 2010/2011, an opportunity that she says allowed her to generate awareness and excitement for a program that she feels incredibly lucky to have been a part of. “My education in public health gave me all the tools I needed to create the career I truly wanted. The U of L was very accommodating with my transfer, giving me as much credit as possible for all the education that I’d already completed. I always felt fully supported in the program and I felt completely prepared to enter the workplace after graduation.” Heroux’s focus at Alberta Health Services in Lethbridge includes smoking cessation and injury prevention programs for populations across southern Alberta.
Caring for the Community “With community health, it is hard to see immediate results from the work you do, but just the thought of preventing a fall, a heart attack or an abusive situation is very rewarding.” Sarah McElravy
(l-r) Jordan Smart, Penni Wilson, Timothy Wells, Laurie Koopmans, Sarah McElravy, Rianne Vanderburg, Simone McKay, Lorna Marshalsay, Karly Frank and Shane Burton.
When most people think of nursing, images of scrubs, stethoscopes, charts and sterile examining rooms spring forward. A place where seniors gather to socialize, play games, listen to music, work out and socialize seems like an unlikely training ground for the next generation of nurses. However, as our health system has evolved, the University of Lethbridge nursing program has kept pace. While nursing graduates remain equipped to work in traditional practice settings, the classroom has expanded to also prepare students for a variety of roles related to health promotion, prevention and protection – many of them in unexpected locations like senior centres. As part of a practice rotation in community health, nine third-year U of L nursing students spent a large portion of their fall semester at the Nord-Bridge Senior Centre in Lethbridge.
Initially, Sarah McElravy, one of the students assigned to work at the centre, was skeptical. “When I first heard about my placement, I wondered how it would relate to anything we were learning in the classroom. I have to admit, none of us knew what to expect. We had a fear of the unknown, I guess,” recalls McElravy. However, as the semester progressed, the students gained clarity and confidence as they spent time with the seniors at the Nord-Bridge Senior Centre. They also worked with the seniors to identify potential learning needs: topics ranging from elder abuse and brain fitness to blood pressure and fall prevention were identified as priorities. Recognizing the opportunity to provide health promotion, prevention and protection education, the nursing students developed and delivered information sessions which were all very well attended.
“Once we started talking to the people at the centre, we realized they really wanted to learn, and we actually had a lot of information to offer them,” says McElravy. In addition to the education sessions, the students organized a full-scale health fair that was free of charge and open to the public. Several organizations geared toward the senior population participated, including Building Healthy Lifestyles, Population Health, the Alberta Elder Abuse Awareness Network and the Alzheimer’s Society; as well as a denturist, a hearing specialist and a personal trainer specializing in seniors’ wellness. Also available were other U of L nursing students, who provided information on hand washing and influenza, as well as student massage therapists from Lethbridge College. “The students really nailed the health fair on the head. There was something for everyone,”
says David Ng, Seniors Programmer at NordBridge Senior Centre. “What’s more, the students really meshed well with our culture, atmosphere and members. You could see they had formed real relationships with the seniors. It was an awesome experience for us.” For McElravy and the other students, the feelings were mutual. “We learned a lot about teaching strategies for older adults and effective communication and organization of time and resources,” she says. “With community health, it is hard to see immediate results from the work you do, but just the thought of preventing a fall, a heart attack or an abusive situation is very rewarding.”