Connecting culture with caring

Larissa Beardy attended Neelin during the mid 2000s and graduated from Neelin Off Campus in 2009. After several years out of school, she made the difficult decision to return to school to pursue a career in nursing. At the same time, she has also taken steps to reconnect with her Indigenous culture. The Neelin High Journalism Team (NHJT) reached her in Winnipeg to speak with her about her journey into her culture and profession. Some responses have been edited for length or clarity.

NHJT: What made you become more interested in your culture?

LB: It’s a bit of a long story, but my grandma, she went to a residential school and so she was raised in the Christian culture, and she was taught that Indigenous culture was bad. So even if we saw that on TV, like any powwows or anything, she would turn it off because that was taught to her. And so she passed that down generation to generation. And when I was growing up, and even at your age, I would feel this shame towards being Indigenous, but as I got older, I (thought) I shouldn’t be ashamed of it. I want to know more about it and embrace it. And it’s been years of a long journey of regaining my identity back. That was taken (from) me and my family.

NHJT: How do you mix your culture with your job?

LB: Right now, I’m in nursing school and with nursing school, I noticed that they have taken a big initiative with trying to bridge the gap between Indigenous people and their care that they receive. So it’s a big part of me. That’s part of why I wanted to become a nurse in the first place too, is because I found that Indigenous people, including myself and my family, have not always received really good care from doctors and nurses. I guess incorporating my culture into that is learning about it (and) just being mindful of all of my patients’ backgrounds. You know, using it in their care to help support them get better. It’s not just medicine that helps them. It’s not just physical interventions — it is the spiritual aspect of it, too, that helps recovery.

NHJT: What tribe are you a part of?

LB: I’m from the Cross Lake First Nations.

NHJT: Did you come from a reservation or were you always in Brandon?

LB: I was born in Thompson, and I grew up in Brandon, and my grandparents lived in Leaf Rapids, so it was all over the place. And then I would be on the reservation just for family events or funerals. So, I have spent some time there, but I didn’t grow up there.

NHJT: What are your personal thoughts and feelings on native cultures?

LB: I find it calming. My grandmother taught us Christianity, and so I never felt, what’s the word? I never felt connected to it, so when I started getting into learning about my culture and we did the smudging, and hearing drumming and all of that, it brings a calm to me that I’ve found a connection that I’ve been looking for my whole life.

NHJT: What made you want to become a nurse?

LB: I’ve always wanted to be a nurse. Even in high school. I just never thought that I was smart enough to do it. And then as I got older, I thought I was too old to go back. But I finally made the decision. Just that, you know, my people in the north need better health care and I wanted to be a part of that and to help bring them better care into my community at Cross Lake.

NHJT: While we’re on that topic, can you describe the process of becoming a nurse?

LB: Because I didn’t have the best grades in high school, I thought that I would have to go back to upgrade. So I reached out to the University of Manitoba to see what I needed, and then I found the PINE (Pathway to Indigenous Nursing Education) program, and so through PINE they provide the supports to get me, all of my prerequisites for nursing. So I applied to them and I got in and they’ve helped me a little bit along the way. They provide tutor support and spiritual support and a lot of guidance. So they helped me get all my prerequisites, which took two years to get. Then I applied into the Faculty of Nursing, and I got in. And I’m now in my fourth year, so almost done.

“I’ve found a connection that I’ve been looking for my whole life.”– Larissa Beardy

NHJT: What area do you specialize in and why did you choose it?

LB: For me, I think I’m going to go into northern nursing, so I’ll be working up north in reservations and isolated communities, and I chose that to help provide good health care to Indigenous people. On top of that, with northern nursing, because you have limited resources, you also get to do a lot more than a nurse here working in the city and you get to deal with everything. It’s not just one specific (thing). It’s everything.

NHJT: How would you describe a typical whole day being a nurse?

LB: I work as an undergraduate nurse employee right now at the Grace Hospital, and so I can do all the skills that I’ve learned in nursing school. But I work under a licensed nurse who will help guide me. And so a typical day is 12 hours, and we start at 7:30 in the morning and we get a report on our patients. So because I’m an undergraduate nurse employee, I get up to four patients and then, so for me it’s getting their medications ready, doing their vital signs, doing an assessment and then working on their goals for the day, whether it’s to get them up and moving, (or) any dressing changes. It’s a long day up until 8 p.m., and then we pass off (our) report to our oncoming nurse. That is a day in the life of working in the hospital. But for school days, it depends. Some days are long, and some days are short. Some days I just have one class and some days it’s three to four classes.

NHJT: How is becoming more in touch with your culture affecting your nursing practice?

LB: I think it’s improving my nursing practice just because, like I said with the university, they are really focused on bridging that gap between different cultures and nursing practice and they’re looking at it as a holistic view. They’re not just giving medicines; (it’s) really important to include all aspects of a patient’s culture and not just physical but also mental, emotional, spiritual (aspects), and that helps patients recover faster, and it’s really nice to see because, as an Indigenous person who hasn’t maybe received the best care in the past, it’s so nice to see that the universities are teaching this (to) the nursing students right in the beginning — like before you go into, out into the world — about these cultures and how to improve relationships. With patients, we’ve got a long way to go, but I think it’s really nice to see.

NHJT: Do you help with other relatives coming to like their culture?

LB: I do with my mom especially, and with my siblings too and cousins. Because that shame that was passed down to us is still in the family. But I especially just keep telling my mom about, you know, these things are OK. It is OK to be in touch with this side. I know it’s made her uncomfortable because that was her whole life, but she’s starting to embrace it as well. But yeah, I do work. I do talk with my family, and try and get them on board with it as well.

» Sharon Bill is a Grade 10 student at École secondaire Neelin High School.