TISDALE - National Nursing Week recognizes and celebrates all nurses who dedicate their professional lives to providing high-quality care for us and our loved ones. This year's theme “Changing Lives. Shaping Tomorrow” celebrates the over 19,000 nurses working across the province.
Tracy Farber, RN and Health Service Manager at the Tisdale Hospital for the last 15 years and 29 years total as an RN in Tisdale, said, “I am a passionate rural nurse and believe rural nursing is a specialty in itself. I love promoting rural nursing to new students, staff and the public, focusing on the misconceptions and promoting the successes of working a smaller facility with all the unique opportunities we have,” said Farber.
“I always knew I enjoyed working with people and helping others. I applied to nursing and after a couple months realized this was truly what I was meant to do. Since then, I have not looked back and have enjoyed a very rewarding career in which I am still very invested.”
Farber said the most rewarding parts of her career are helping clients navigate through the system and then seeing them after they have left their care. Farber said, “I find it rewarding to lead by example and learn from staff as well. I am a strong advocate for all scopes of nursing as I believe in teamwork and all scopes have equal and important parts in providing care for our clients. I work beside amazing nurses who provide a great support system.”
Farber said that human resource issues have been among the biggest challenges the past couple of years. “Retaining nurses and physicians for long periods of time has proved to be challenging. When human resources are limited, this leads to burnout with existing staff. This is exacerbated by the fact the acuity and breadth of patients has changed and we have less resources to manage these clients.”
Farber said, that six years ago Tisdale (and Nipawin) were the two main rural hospitals involved in the Humboldt bus tragedy. “I am immensely proud of how all the staff stepped up and we provided great care for our clients who came through our doors on that tragic night. My colleague and myself have told our story at the National Emergency Nurses Association conference as well to the Saskatchewan Emergency Nurses Group conference. We do this not for recognition but to spread awareness of our capabilities in an unprecedented rural emergency.”
