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Thirty-six College of Nursing students recently attended the 2022 Canadian Nursing Students Association (CNSA) National Conference, a four day event with the theme of “Nursing Outside the Box.”
Running January 20-23, the conference featured 26 speakers from across Canada and the US speaking on a variety of topics.
Vivian Umeohabike, the college’s CNSA associate delegate, said there were many highlights, including a presentation by Carla Compton, a resilient leadership coach at the University of Saskatchewan. Compton combines scientific and spiritual practices to help nurses upgrade their stress processing abilities, emotional intelligence, leadership skills and work-life balance.
“In nursing we see a lot of good, but we also see so much suffering, and sometimes have a hard time accepting the good. We feel like we need to be doing more to help people who are suffering, but what she was saying was that we shouldn’t feel guilty about that,” said Umeohabike.
Fourth-year bachelor of nursing student Gieselle Ortilla said she was inspired by a presentation from Nurse Blake, a Florida-based registered nurse and social media influencer with over three million followers. Blake launched a popular podcast in 2021, alongside his husband, covering topics relevant to nurses and health-care workers alike. Blake uses humour to advocate for nurses. In 2021, he performed 55 shows for over 50,000 nurses during his PTO Comedy Tour.
“Seeing someone like Nurse Blake continuously push and advocate, even throughout nursing school, shows that despite being a student our voices could still be heard,” Ortilla said.
“This conference as it had shown various sides of nursing, that many nursing student’s may have not thought about after graduation. It was also a great way to connect with other nursing students in Canada.”