The NTC Nursing team gathered at Canal Beach on May 12 to welcome their new manager and to celebrate each other during Canada’s National Nursing week, which runs May 11 to 17.
Tenille Lindsay is the new Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council Community Health manager. Part of her role is to manage the NTC Nursing team. According to NTC nurse Kelsey Rix, there are eight NTC nurses plus two casual workers.
“There used to be about 32 nurses,” said Sonya Summerville, a long-time NTC nurse.
When asked where the nurses went, Summerville said, over time, everyone just moved on. She pointed to the nation-wide nurse shortage that is also being felt in the US.
Tenille Lindsay was born and raised in Port Alberni, where she is raising her own children. She has been a registered nurse for 16 years. Growing up in the small city, Lindsay says she has lots of Nuu-chah-nulth friends that she maintains connections with.
Lindsay said she had a previous connection with the NTC by working with one of Usma’s programs.
“The NTC has always been welcoming, supportive and collaborative,” she said.
Also, the NTC Nursing program does things differently.
“We look at health care holistically,” said nurse Rix.
Lindsay says the nursing style is more about building relationships rather than treatment alone. This is why they can’t just have a nurse from a hospital, for example, come and fill in for an NTC nurse for a day.
“They need to build those relationships,” said Lindsay, who, on her second day in the role, admitted there was much to learn. “I want to bring back the Nuu-chah-nulth way of nursing, even though I may not fully understand it.”
Part of bringing that style of nursing back would be to rebuild the nursing staff to the numbers it once had. At this point, it is not known how this can be achieved given the current health care crisis, but it is a goal.
NTC nurses are divided up to serve as many Nuu-chah-nulth communities as possible. They make scheduled trips to remote communities. Lindsay hopes to find ways to make these services more accessible.
“I know it is not accessible to all communities – we want to make it accessible…equitable. The goal is to grow it.” she said.
The NTC Nurses took part in a smudge ceremony and were brushed off, blanketed and praised for the good work that they do. A large portion of the staff are Nuu-chah-nulth nurses from Ahousaht, Tseshaht, Hupačasath and Tla-o-qui-aht.
