Nursing is a rewarding but uniquely challenging career choice, and supporting new nurses in their transition to the profession, has become something of a passion project for Bloomberg Nursing alumna Angelina Dean (BScN 1996).
“I want to show nursing students that nursing practice is not as narrow as they might think,” says Dean, who is a public health nurse at the City of Toronto. “It gives me a sense of pride to be able to mentor students, and show them as many opportunities and experiences as I can so that they can see the impact nurses have on people’s lives outside of the hospital.”
As a student, Dean recalls how integral the support she received from Faculty mentors was in helping her navigate her career. Though she started as a nurse in labour & delivery, Dean knew that she wanted to treat patients in a more holistic way and focus on preventing health issues upstream. Drawing on the support of her mentors, Dean was able to make the switch to public health, allowing her to partake in treating patients and families before they ended up in hospital. From well-baby visits to prenatal and postnatal classes for new parents, and as a key member of a clinic breastfeeding team working with new mother, Dean says she finally found her calling.
In 2016, Dean move into school-based programming as a public health nurse. She now works on assessments with principals and teachers to meet the needs of students with an emphasis on providing mental health supports, addressing anxiety in schools, and managing the lapse in vaccinations for many students as a result of the COVID19 pandemic.
As a mentor and preceptor, Dean says she tries to show nursing students how a public health approach in nursing and meeting clients where they are at, provides an opportunity to recognize patterns and address issues contributing to the negative impacts on someone’s health.
“Students have said to me, ‘I didn’t realize I could be a nurse and affect so many people’s lives or see how connected everything is to a patients overall wellbeing,” says Dean. “Another student of mine stumbled upon a protest during some of their community work, and it touched them so much, to see the inequity that many people are faced with. As a nurse in public health, you are always trying to extrapolate how you can support people in this role,” says Dean.
Bloomberg Nursing has a rich history of alumni who are nursing leaders, and for Dean, that includes nurses in public health. She hopes that more Bloomberg Nursing alumni in the public health field will also choose to offer their time and expertise to emerging nurses through mentorship and as a preceptor, as the shortage of nurses in the work force continues to pose a challenge to the health care system.
In addition to volunteer roles, Dean is also an advocate for alumni providing financial support to people who want to become nurses and recently became a monthly donor herself.
“I don’t believe in only offering my time as a volunteer, I wanted to offer that monetary support too. I recognize that it might be hard for a lot of individuals who want to become nurses to financially support that decision. If they are passionate – and we need passionate people in nursing – then I think it makes sense to help them with that bit of extra funding so they can pursue this career,” says Dean.
As a donor to the Educating Nursing’s Future Fund, Dean enjoys the flexibility of being able to give a small amount monthly, instead of one big chunk. This has made it easier for her to budget her donation into her monthly spending and fulfills her desire to give back to new nurses in a multitude of ways.
You can learn more about giving to Bloomberg Nursing’s Educating Nursing’s Future Fund by connecting with Senior Development Officer, Nicole Landa.
Looking ahead, Dean is eager to continue mentoring nursing students, and getting involved in whatever way she can as a Bloomberg Nursing alumna.
“Providing support for future generations of nurses is an amazing opportunity, and I hope to always be able to lend a listening ear,” says Dean.