Nursing Spotlight
graduate Harveer Sihota
A Passion for Policy
By Clare KiernanReprinted with permission from
TouchPoints | July 2009
“When I started the program I felt like the other students knew more and were more experienced then I was, but I found that you don’t realize how much you know until you start sharing your knowledge. We’re all nurses, we all care about the same thing: patient care.”
Harveer Sihota graduates from the MSN program ready for a challenge and fuelled with ambition to pursue and effect change. When told she had won the Pauline Capelle Award, which goes to the top MSN graduate, Harveer said she was sure there must be some mistake. “Even when I received the Mallory Award [in 2008], I was taken aback. I know I was so passionate about what I was doing and worked really hard, but it was still a huge surprise! Because I’ve come into the program at a younger age than most, it’s been very motivating, and encourages me to try to accomplish even more.”
“I always wanted to do my master’s,” she says. “Even when I was in the basic baccalaureate program I knew I was going to go for further education. The UBC School has a great reputation and when I looked at the instructors’ profiles I was so impressed with the type of work that they do. I’d wanted to do my basic degree at UBC, but it hadn’t worked out, so I felt honoured when I received my MSN acceptance letter!”
Harveer had general ideas coming into the program of what subject she might choose for her culminating scholarly project, but was grateful that faculty encouraged students to be open-minded to discovering new opportunities. “I wanted to prepare myself for leadership positions in nursing and health care and find my career focus. It’s not that I have a definitive goal in mind even now, but think I know where I’m heading and feel like I’m on track.”
When she began the program, health policy held no particular interest for Harveer, “I would just shut my ears thinking, ‘That’s not something that’s relevant to me or nursing.’” However, the first policy course she took was with Associate Professor, Dr. Colleen Varcoe. “Even through the online medium, I could sense Dr. Varcoe’s enthusiasm and passion. The articles and assignments ignited my interest and enthusiasm for health policy.”
Working as a case manager in Home Health Care, Harveer had been conducting comprehensive care assessments. She recognized that the definition of necessary care as hospital-based services has typically led to significant cuts to government services for home care, and that this policy decision has affected the ability of many of her clients to lead independent lives. She became aware that, when applications for home care services were declined, it was often women who were forced to become family caregivers. In this observation she found the subject for her original scholarly project.
“It is estimated that 80% of informal caregiving is provided by wives, daughters and daughters-in-law” says Harveer. “I focused on that group, analysing the home support policy in B.C. and the adverse effects it is having on women as informal caregivers. The system, and society, assume these women want to look after their family members, but often the burden on their own health and lives is severe.
“I want to use my career to influence the health policies that contribute to these issues” she says. “I used to think that policy was something outside of nursing and that it wasn’t something we need to deal with, but everything is linked to policy. When health care supports are cut back, we can’t provide the best care for our patients.”
This month, Harveer starts a new position as a care coordinator, with the Chronic Care Clinic in Surrey. A new project applying a novel approach to managing chronic diseases, the focus of this clinic is on self-management support. “We’ll be developing care plans that acknowledge the patient as the expert on his/her own body and disease. I will act as a facilitator rather than a teacher and be there for guidance, referring them to various community resources, providing any necessary education and whatever they need to get them to the point where they have the confidence to do it on their own.”
With her passion for health policy and the difference it makes in the lives of those nursing serves, Harveer will be ideally placed to enthusiastically embrace new ways of enacting service delivery, while critically reflecting on the intended and possibly unintended impact on patients and their families. “Change is good” says Harveer, who is eager to begin her new position. “That’s why I love nursing, there are always opportunities to learn!” The health care system is in excellent hands supported by compassionate critical thinkers like Harveer, and we know that Pauline Capelle would have been proud to acknowledge her accomplishments.
