This year’s National Nurses Week in Canada, which takes place May 11th to 17th, has taken on special meaning as we have all gained a greater appreciation for the critical role played by frontline health care workers as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic. At Trinity College School, we wanted to mark this occasion by sharing the stories of just a few of our amazing alumni working in the nursing sector:

Lindsay (Pollard) Harding ’06
Lindsay is a public health nurse for our local Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit, working out of Port Hope. Normally, she provides support to families in the areas of prenatal education, infant feeding, postpartum adjustment and early parenting. But since the onset of the pandemic, Lindsay has been working in case management and contact tracing for COVID-19 cases. 

Rachel (Swift) Craig ’03
Rachel is the clinical nurse specialist for Surgery at Horizon Health Network in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She says, “We have seen tremendous changes in healthcare over the past two months, and in my role, I have been helping to ensure staff are prepared for the influx of COVID-19 patients, while developing new plans and processes for elective surgeries that have been delayed. I’m thankful the number of COVID-19 cases have been much lower in New Brunswick than we expected; thank you to everyone who has stayed home and flattened the curve!”

Shannon Swift ’06
Shannon works at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto in the role of clinical nurse educator in the Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit. A new mom, she recently began a parental leave with her daughter. In 2018, Shannon and her fellow nursing team were the only Canadian unit to receive the gold Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.

Emily Dove ’08 
A registered nurse in the Cardiac Short Stay Unit at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket, Ontario, Emily helps patients recovering from cardiac procedures. She also works at Royal Victoria Health Centre in Barrie, in the recovery room. She says, “I hope everyone is staying healthy and practicing social distancing!”

Rachael Chin-You ’07
Rachael is the unit coordinator in the Oncology and Palliative Care Unit of North York General Hospital, where she has served for almost eight year. In 2018, Rachael received the Joseff Baruch Advanced Nursing Award. She says, “Not only am I proud to be a nurse, but I’m also very proud to be a TCS alumnus.” 

Emily Kedwell ’03
Emily is a nurse practitioner and the general services team lead at Quest Community Health Centre in St. Catharines, Ontario, where she has been since 2012. Quest CHC is community-governed organization that focuses on primary health care, health promotion and community capacity building for clients and the surrounding community, with a focus on individuals who often face barriers accessing care in a more traditional system, such as individuals without a healthcare provider who are also experiencing mental health, addictions or concurrent disorders; street-involved populations; isolated seniors; sexually and gender diverse populations; at-risk children, youth and families; individuals who frequent the emergency department for care/opioid-dependent; and migrant agricultural workers. She says, “I (and the rest of the leadership team) are incredibly proud of how our staff has stepped up to continue to provide health care to our clients during the pandemic. Though we have shifted primarily to virtual care options, we have not closed our doors as we believe that we have a duty to do our utmost to keep people out of hospitals that are already overburdened. She also shared a video (https://youtu.be/kWiCYQLox5s) her team created to shares smiles – and a few health tips – during the COVID-19 pandemic.