The MSc Program in Healthcare Quality at XXXX, Canada, is my first choice among master's degree programs in Healthcare Quality and Administration. Your program is unique, and an ideal fit with my interests and career goals. I also believe that my sense of mission to the health needs of Canada’s First Nations people is aligned with that of XXXX University.
With over 30 years of experience as a nurse, I have also developed a longstanding, unique relationship with healthcare systems for the First Nations across Canada. For this reason, I believe that I will have valuable things to share in class at XXXX University and as I get to know my colleagues with similar interests from all over the world.
I look forward to learning about traditional healing and medicines, always with an eye to how they can be incorporated into our preventative/primary healthcare models. I also hope to work with other First Nations or similar organizations in other countries to enhance my understanding through comparison. I look forward to decades of collaboration with the World Health Organization, helping them advance in their support and cooperation with initiatives for the advancement of promoting traditional medicine/healing of the First Nations. I look forward to intensively studying how the work of the WHO correlates with better health outcomes.
I am First Nations from Six Nations in Brantford, Ontario. I have been working and living in the James Bay Region of Northern Ontario since 2009. I have met and partnered with all chiefs and band councils in the area to improve care in each of their communities, learning about the struggles for access to care and identifying First Nations peoples' specific health care needs. I have also had to navigate through the current health system when living in remote First Nations communities to get the healthcare I needed for myself – an excellent experience. A highly accomplished nurse, I have acquired and finely honed many different skills from many other health systems. I have worked in small and large organizations and have an excellent mind for organizing strategies to improve functionality and outcomes. I am passionate about being a leader in the cause of improving the quality of care across Canada, particularly for First Nations communities.
My nursing career began in 1987 as a frontline nurse when few full-time nursing positions were available. I worked in a part-time position filling in when staffing was short. This experience allowed me to hone my time management and basic nursing skills and provided me with a flexible work environment. In this environment, I quickly learned to adapt to any situation. This adaptability has served me well over the years when working in a collaborative care unit of antepartum, labor and delivery, postpartum and cardiac care. I had some excellent mentors in my years of nursing. They gave me the support and guidance that instilled confidence in my nursing abilities. From 2001 to 2009, I performed home care nursing for two companies in different periods. This is where I learned to become more independent in my nursing practice. I accomplished best practice wound care, sharpened my communication skills through teaching health to people in the communities of the Niagara region, and utilized innovation to appropriately deliver quality care in a home setting. I was employed in a term position from May to August 2004 for the Community Care Access Center in St. Catharine's, Ontario. This organization has been incorporated into the Local Health Integrated Systems across the province. As the Resource Manager, I dealt with emergencies for frontline providers, ensuring the appropriate support was employed and communicated to the relevant manager within the organization.
Next, I enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces, a childhood dream I accomplished just in time, completing rigorous basic training for the Health Services and the regular military sectors – at the age of thirty-six. I managed clinic operations and taught clinical skills to med techs in the classroom and clinical environments. This enhanced my self-confidence to pursue my dreams and trust my vision; soon, I was off to the James Bay region in Northern Ontario. I relocated to this area in 2009 to work with First Nations people, providing direct nursing care through assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation of care plans. In 2011, I had the opportunity to lead the Fort Albany site by supporting the staff to ensure quality care through safe and effective nursing practices. I was a successful candidate in 2015 for the Director of Professional Practice position. This position was one that I wanted to obtain as it would provide me with the ability to promote quality healthcare and make a difference in the current healthcare system.
I want to become a significant driving force for improving health care and quality for First Nations in Canada by developing and implementing innovative, practical design improvements in the current system for First Nations people of Canada. A quality care system involves safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care – and what we have already in place is woefully inadequate for the long term. The First Nations people of Canada must struggle with the current healthcare system because of the need for government approvals for care access.
The system needs to reeducate and retool in such a way as to overcome cultural biases and racism, a response to lingering notions in the society of indigenous inferiority. Canada has promised that all people will have equitable access to healthcare, so I aim to make that a reality for First Nations people.
Thank you for considering my application to the MSc Program in Healthcare Quality at XXXX University.
MSc Healthcare Quality, Canada First Nations Peoples