Top honours for former Yk nurse
Scott Robertson awarded for work in Northern remote care
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
One of Yellowknife's former nurses has been recognized with a prestigious national honour for his work in the territory.
Scott Robertson is this year's sole recipient of the annual Nursing Leadership Award of The Canadian College of Health Leaders.
He accepted the award in Ottawa earlier this month.
Robertson, who has worked in roles such as chief nursing officer and senior nursing consultant for the Department of Health and Social Services, was honoured for his work in emergency and remote care settings in the North.
"I think what I was able to achieve in my time there is strengthening the relationship between what we did at the department and with nurses on the front line," he said.
Roberston described his experience working in health centres across the North as what inspired him to go into the policy side of nursing.
"I was talking to one of my colleagues about how frustrated I was when I worked at different health centres across the North, how things were done differently at every single health centre," he said. "And how disruptive that was."
His colleague told him there was a job opening for that at the Department of Health and Social Services.
With the government, Robertson worked to standardize the system so nurses could focus on giving care instead of figure out the ways different communities do paperwork, like ordering medicine in each community.
Cindy MacBride, who works with The Canadian College of Health Leaders, said Robertson was chosen because his work stuck out.
"You have a lot of nurses that might be in a hospital and they have their own kind of challenges," she said. "(But) I think a lot of it had to do with the circumstances of where he was located."
She said some of the approaches Robertson had to these difficulties were innovative, with him even hosting a monthly call-in radio show for nurses in the North.
Roberston has just finished up a stint as a visiting scholar at Stanford University, where he studied access to health services in remote areas, and is now in San Francisco at a life science organization.
He said the United States and the North have a lot of similarities when it comes to health care - while geography is a barrier to care in the North, the U.S. has economic barriers.
"The social determinants of health are the same," Robertson said. "They're very skewed towards social-economic status, ethnicity. There are parallels there."
Born and raised in Yellowknife, Robertson moved away a year and a half ago. He said he would eventually like to return to the North. When he returns, he said he'd like the opportunity to expand the role of nursing.
"One of the most exciting thing about working in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut is the role of the registered nurse is very broad," he said. "There is still a lot potential for nursing to grow in its ability to be leaders in health care."
He said he's excited about the opportunities nursing can bring, especially by enhancing people's access to health services in remote and rural areas.
"I'm genuinely interested in doing something that has an impact," said Robertson. "That, without sounding cheesy, makes the world a better place."
The award was sponsored by Baxter Corporation.
