New Master of Nursing graduate Sara Scott is the perfect example of what happens when experience, interest and a formal education come together. At the age of 41, she says returning to school was exactly why she discovered that despite her long absence from school and her family, she can still make meaningful contributions to society in her nursing career.
Scott was a registered nurse for 17 years, eight of which were spent in Foothills Unit 37 (acute nephrology and kidney transplant). He returned to university to focus on improving diabetes outcomes, hoping to find more balance in her care and personal life at some point.
“I’ve seen diabetes literally take everything away from people, limb for limb”
“I’ve worked with people who treat end-stage kidney disease, often with advanced diabetes,” she says. “I wanted to find a way before I could help with the diabetes experience because sometimes I saw diabetes literally take everything away from people. I wanted to help tackle the root causes, prevent, and slow the progression rather than treat symptoms. ”
Effects of Maternity Matters
As a mother, Scott had also developed an interest in mentoring through
personal experience with Motherhood Matters, a group that supports young mothers before high school graduation. “I did not expect to benefit from group members who had similar life experiences as mine and gave me space to reflect on my life and values,” she explains, adding that joining the group piqued her desire have to become a role model for other young mothers.
The final part was learning about indigenous health, partly through lunches and learning events at UCalgary Nursing. “I was surprised how little I actually knew about colonization and the hardship that has affected the health of the population. this group and how my own family was affected, ”says Scott, himself a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. “My supervisor, Dr. Ruth Swart and I began to think about what a peer mentorship program for indigenous peoples would look like and whether it would have been researched. ”
And so Scott’s research program was born – Investigating how indigenous people who treat diabetes can be better supported through social connections in the form of peer mentors. Lindsay Crowshoe’s Educating for Equity initiative, and this team helped her find an accessible sample of people for her own project.
“The results of my research showed a clear interest and need for meaningful support for indigenous people dealing with diabetes,” she says, “and the participants gave me many ideas on how to develop the concept of indigenous peer mentorship can begin. ”
Lifelong experiences
Scott is excited about her new role as a clinical research nurse and is working on exciting initiatives led by the researchers she met in her training including (from UCalgary’s Cumming School of Medicine) Drs. David Campbell, Dana Olstad and Crowshoe. And she is grateful for her lifelong experiences in helping her reach that point.
“My experiences as a mother have contributed to my success: time management, perseverance, patience, understanding the gray, respecting different perspectives and sitting paradoxically,” she concludes. She encourages other mothers who have invested time and themselves in their families to invest in their education and careers too, even if they think it’s too late. “I had a lot of difficulties to overcome when I started as a single mother at 18. I never thought that I would make it to a college program and be successful in it.
“I’m really looking forward to getting my first graduation photos with my husband and children, who have all worked hard to get me to this milestone too.”
