The Graduate Nursing Students Association (GNSA) held its annual Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) Conference on March 2, with four guest speakers discussing the topic of “trauma-informed practice.”
Event co-organizers Ashley Bell and Hannah Mohammed said the topic was chosen because it is wide-reaching, touching those in education, clinical practice, administration, as well as those concerned with Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ rights and others.
“Trauma means something different for everybody, so we brought in speakers with different perspectives,” said Mohammed, a first-year master of nursing student (education stream) and clinical education facilitator with the College of Nursing.
The speakers included:
- Dr. Nicole Harder, associate dean of undergraduate programs for the College of Nursing and Mindermar Professor in Human Simulation for the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. Harder discussed simulation and debriefing with nursing students after traumatic events.
- Jessy Dame, Indigenous sex and gender lead with the Vancouver Coastal Health team and two-spirit program manager at the Community-Based Research Centre in Vancouver. His presentation was on trauma in the birthing experience, with a focus on decolonization and creating pathways to support a non-binary birthing experience.
- Rhonda Campbell, a primary care NP who works in Winnipeg’s inner city, providing primary care and walk-in care to the underserved populations. She discussed trauma informed practice as an NP, particularly around treating Indigenous people.
- Jennifer Cumpsty, acting executive director for acute inpatient services at Health Sciences Center (HSC) Winnipeg and deputy incident commander of HSC’s COVID-19 incident management leadership team. She discussed trauma-informed leadership at HSC during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As graduate nursing students, moving forward in our advanced practice careers, we need to be mindful that trauma can pop up anywhere. This extra education can go a long way to serving our populations,” said Bell, a first-year master of nursing student (clinical stream).
Over 70 people attended the virtual event. Knowledge Keeper Leslie Spillett and College of Nursing dean Dr. Netha Dyck both brought opening remarks. Natalia Mozol, a counsellor from the UM Student Counselling Centre, was present to support attendees as needed.
Donations were collected for 1JustCity, an organization that supports three drop-in community centres in Winnipeg’s core neighbourhoods. $450 was raised for the drop-in centre in the West End and the GNSA more than matched the donation to bring the total to $1,000.