Let’s visit the Carmacks Health Centre and meet someone who made a big career change — a move from Toronto to Carmacks.
Caitlin works as primary health care nurse in charge.
It’s a big change from her previous career which included emergency nursing.
Caitlin says her new role is varied and includes a lot of autonomy which she enjoys.
She also enjoys the relationships she is building with a small population she meets regularly at the health centre.
Let’s visit Carmacks and learn about Caitlin's role with the Government of Yukon.
Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your role?
My name is Caitlin. I'm the nurse in charge at the Carmacks Health Center.
I operate in the primary health care nurse role — but I also have added duties on top of that. When I first started I was a primary health care nurse and since then I've moved into the nurse in charge role in the last few years.
What do you like about working in Carmacks?
It’s a nice combination here. There’s lot of autonomy and I'm able to practice in a way that feels healing and very community-based, which I really appreciate.
The work here is in an expanded scope. This allows me to use my critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
I find that we work collaboratively and with patients in a way that is really fulfilling. It promotes my own growth and learning.
You recently made an important career change. Could you tell us about that?
I am from Ontario and I've worked with rural hospital emergencies as well as inner-city emergencies.
My background is predominantly ER nursing.
In recent years I had worked in Toronto, primarily with provisionally-housed folks: That means lots of addictions, major trauma and that kind of thing. I've also worked with sexual assault survivors and did a little bit of critical acute care and a little bit of oncology.
My background is sort of a mixed bag, which has served me well.
But I got to a point I was feeling pretty burnt out in my inner-city emergency medicine job.
I wanted something quite different. So I came out here. I loved it.
For the first two or three years, I worked both in Toronto and Carmacks.
I’d work here on rotation and I would be back in Toronto working in the emergency department. But I settled here in 2021 and I stopped going back and forth.
I still work rotationally, which is wonderful in terms of flexibility and having time to enjoy the Yukon.
My partner and I bought a house last July! So we're here now.
Nurses in Yukon community health centres work in an expanded scope. Could you tell us about that?
Absolutely. We do all aspects of health. There’s sexual health, communicable disease, we do prenatal care. Ideally, we're not delivering babies but sometimes we do post-natal care well!
We take care of elders, children, the whole community population really.
We deal with public health, immunizations. Well-baby visits, school health and more.
We are also emergency response as 9-1-1 is our living room phones.
It's really the full basket of nursing!
But another part of the role is helping people navigate the health system.
Because folks know us, and trust us, we are usually their go-to source for questions about their care, regardless if it's something happening in the community or in Whitehorse or in BC.
We really provide a critical role in connecting pieces for people, acting as navigators of the health care system.
You have now worked here for several years. Can you tell me about the relationships you have with clients?
I really appreciate the trust the community has placed in us.
And how they've been kind to us as well.
In recent years we've been fortunate that we've been able to keep a lot of our staff here in Carmacks and I think that's a huge piece of it.
We're still not that far from removed from health care being a really negative interaction for a lot of people: Especially rural folks, especially First Nations folks who very validly have major concerns with health care.
I think being able to have those long-term relationships is a big piece of slowly rebuilding that eroded trust.
Over the years, I've seen the huge impact that that can have.
Here in Carmacks we have very limited negative interactions with patients. People come in voluntarily. They want to see us. They're smiling. They bring their kids, we see elders who actively seek care from us. And they’re very kind to us as well.
I think it's definitely the most rewarding thing I've ever done.
Especially for nurses, sometimes I think the role hasn't expanded with how educated we are now. That can feel very stifling.
Working in teaching hospitals, I often felt that my opinion didn’t matter. I did not have a lot of agency. I was not allowed to make decisions in the same way that I am here.
Here, the autonomy forces you to be better, to learn more, and really stretch your skills.
If you are feeling a stuck, or feeling that lack of agency or feeling powerless where you are — the Yukon is a great place to learn and grow.
Here you can contribute to care an incredibly meaningful way.