After a decade of moving around in administrative jobs, Janice Buchanan decided it was time to change her career. At 39 years old, she came to the world of health care from a variety of administrative jobs in banking and technology. She needed to make a change and a chance bout of soul searching with her mom led her to consider nursing.
Whether she’s hiking or sea kayaking at her cottage in Liverpool, or jumping from emergency department shifts at Queens General Hospital to inpatient care at Dartmouth General Hospital, variety is the spice of life for Dr. Christina Morgan. But being a hospitalist at DGH is a particular passion. “We have a very collegial group here. The nurses, the care workers; everybody here gets along very well – it’s a true community hospital.”
All of us at NSHA – those in direct care roles as well as those in administrative roles – like all Nova Scotians, want to ensure the best services are in place and accessible to people with mental illnesses and that the harmful effects of those illnesses are minimized.
What the heck is a hospitalist? “In my mind, a hospitalist is a generalist, so usually a family medicine- or general internal medicine-trained physician who takes care of people in the hospital,” Dr. Elizabeth Burton described earlier this week, while taking a break between rounds on Unit 8.4 at the Halifax Infirmary. The term “hospitalist” is fairly new and not necessarily well-known by the general public, so Dr. Burton is pleased to see National Hospitalist Day introduced this year, now set for the first Thursday of March.
“A day to talk about it a little more is a good thing, just to spread awareness, so that people know what we’re doing and how we can potentially help them.”
New Interpreter On Wheels technology is now available at emergency departments in all of Nova Scotia Health Authority’s regional hospitals. An electronic tablet, built into a portable cart, provides instant access to interpreters in more than 35 languages through an external service called Language Line.
As a member of NSHA’s health protection team, Angela Harper works tirelessly to keep the public safe from infectious diseases. Part of the public health nurse’s work involves following up on cases of transmittable diseases that are reported to public health. Harper has a challenging role, but credits her courage and strength to her black loyalist heritage.
Activist and educator Dr. Lynn Jones reminded those in attendance at an African Heritage Month Celebration in Halifax this week that “we’re all one.” “We all come from the continent of Africa,” the renowned African Nova Scotian leader pointed out Monday, Feb. 25, to a room full of people who had gathered in the Bethune Ballroom at the QEII Health Sciences Centre to hear her speak.
