Second-year BScN student Lynn Joseph says winning the bursary has lifted a weight off her shoulders, allowing her to reduce her work hours and focus more on her studies.
As a second-year BScN student, Lynn Joseph has been maintaining an exhausting schedule balancing full-time studies, part-time work at a neighbourhood CHSLD (seniors’ nursing home) and tutoring two students. When she found out while on her lunch break during her clinical placement at a CLSC that she had been awarded a $10,000 bursary from Dialogue McGill, she cried tears of joy and relief. “This award has taken a huge weight off my shoulders. It will cover my tuition and allow me to reduce my hours at work so that I can concentrate more on my studies,” she explains.
Ever since she was a child, Joseph has been fascinated by health care. She fondly recalls how her mother, who worked as a beneficiary attendant before switching to nursing school, would practice her newfound skills at home. When Joseph was in her last year of high school, her mother had a heart attack. “I spent a lot of time at the hospital, watching the nurses in action. I decided that nursing could be the right fit for me,” she says, adding that her mother eventually recovered.
After pursuing health sciences in CEGEP, Joseph set her sights on McGill’s Ingram School of Nursing. “The program really appealed to me and it’s been an amazing experience. I love the simulations in the lab, the theory courses, the interactions with patients during clinical rotations, seeing how nurses establish trusting relationships with their patients, educate and reassure them” she says enthusiastically.
Having completed the majority of her schooling in French, initially, Joseph was a bit worried about undertaking such a rigorous program of study at McGill. “I had English-speaking friends in high school, I read in English and I listen to podcasts in English. In the end, I had no difficulties at all,” she says, adding that students at the ISoN are offered opportunities to improve their language skills in both English and French and that papers and exams can be submitted in either language.
What’s next for Joseph? She plans on applying to be a grader, and is looking forward to working as an extern in the cardiac unit at the Jewish General Hospital this summer. As a condition of accepting the Dialogue McGill Bursary, Joseph must to commit to at least one year of public service in Quebec upon graduation – a condition she is more than happy to meet. Her long-term goal is to work for a few years as an intensive care and cardiac intensive care nurse, and then return to McGill to pursue a master’s degree. “Nursing is such a versatile career – there are so many ways to have an impact. I’ve been very blessed with opportunities and am grateful for this Dialogue McGill bursary,” she concludes.
Further reading: Dialogue McGill receives another 5 years of funding from Health Canada
