Meet Magnolia - National Nursing Week 2023

In honour of #NationalNursingWeek, we would like to take the opportunity to highlight and celebrate our nursing staff.  

Magnolia is a Registered Nurse at BSF’s Bow View Manor. She is constantly putting people first, and enjoys getting to know our residents and finding out what makes them unique. Magnolia was also Bow View Manor's Employee of the Year in 2022. 

To celebrate National Nursing Week, we asked her a few questions:

What is your role at BSF?

As with my nursing colleagues, my main role at BSF is to provide and ensure our residents get safe, ethical, quality, and person –centered care. Inherent in this role are that of leadership and a strong sense of accountability whereby the vision of the BSF is actualized in helping the residents live life to the fullest with dignity, hope and happiness.  

In like manner, my role encompasses working alongside members of other allied health professions such as physicians, pharmacists, dietitians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, recreation therapists, and social workers in the application of scientific principles and in the delivery of evidence-based practice to optimize resident care and client outcomes.

What does your typical day at work look like? 

My typical day revolves around providing hands-on care to residents including, but not limited to, checking vital signs and blood sugars, collaborating with the interprofessional team to develop a holistic plan of care, doing med pass, completing assessments, attending care conferences, doing wound dressings and enteral tube feeds, sending referrals, supervising unregulated professionals, and undertaking other functions as necessary to maintaining residents’ care goals and outcomes. 

What do you enjoy about working at BSF? 

Working at BSF is rewarding in many ways. In fact, the rewards go much deeper than what I expected.

I am able to work to full scope of my nursing practice in a dynamic environment which provides opportunities to care for people with challenging and extensive health needs. At BSF, my physical assessment and critical thinking skills are honed as I address the needs of residents with a variety of stable and unstable comorbidities. 

Along the same vein, I get to know my residents on a deeper level and establish valuable relationships, which subsequently help me develop profound ways of understanding the world and viewing in a different lens those that matter most in life.  

Do you have a favourite memory from your time at BSF? 

I have many favourite memories while working at the BSF. To mention two of them are as follows: 

First was when I took care of a resident who was having persistent pain due to cancer. When asked how he was doing, he replied, “Thank God, I’m still alive.” I could never have anticipated his verbal response. He reminded me to be grateful in all circumstances, any day. 

Second, was when I was awarded Employee of the Year last year (2022). Though I was not able to personally receive the award because of a family emergency, I felt valued and blessed to be in an organization with an amazing work culture and people.