Nursing alumna receives CARNA 2016 Rising Star Award

"[Being a registered nurse], you get the best of modern medical science and the art of human anthropology put into one career."

Following graduation with distinction from the University of Calgary nursing program, Mia obtained a position in the same Coronary Care Unit (CCU) at the Peter Lougheed Centre where she had done her nursing practicum.

More recently, she has added casual work on the sister unit, medical cardiology (MC), to her current work with critically ill cardiac patients in the CCU. As the MC unit transitioned to more collaborative care and care hubs, Mia took it upon herself to develop a process flow map that supports staff and provides guidance in both procedural and cultural changes involved in that shift.

"Every person's heart is completely unique – not one person has the same exact heart rhythm on monitor, always some variation, heart rhythm in itself is a fingerprint and helps give a person their uniqueness."

In the daily teaching rounds for residents and cardiologists to address the needs of each patient with the multi-disciplinary team, Mia advocates for her patients and is accountable to the team to follow through on all of the actions discussed and decided upon.

"You get to understand people for who they are, to know their struggles and challenges behind their illness, to know their families and their connections, to know their successes prior to the illness, to know their hopes and dreams for the future ..."

Her colleagues have described Mia as a staff member who puts extra effort into creating individualized patient goals.

"I love seeing how my cardiac patients heal with time, and how my own practice transitions as they transition."
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Mia looks forwards to a long-lasting nursing career where she continually gets exposure to new technologies and therapies that evolve from today's modern medicine and nursing.

This article originally appeared on the CARNA Awards website.