August's Nurse to Know: Carla Compton, RN, BScN (she/her) MLA Tuxedo, Premier's Advisor on Nursing Culture & Safety, Co-chair Health Advisory Table

August's Nurse to Know: Carla Compton, RN, BScN (she/her)

MLA Tuxedo, Premier's Advisor on Nursing Culture & Safety, Co-chair Health Advisory Table

“I was the one who was surprised when I said I'm going to become a nurse and everyone else was like ‘Ah, tell us something new.”

Carla Compton RN, BScN, didn't originally plan on pursuing a career in nursing. Her passion for ethics and technology originally drew her to the field of genetic counselling.

After getting to know some first, second- and third year nursing students on her university residence floor, she ultimately found her calling in nursing.

“Talking with these floor-mates of mine and finding out what they were learning and what they were doing, I was like ‘Oh my gosh that sounds so exciting’,” Carla remembers. “So, within my first month of university I realized I needed to change everything, so I did.”

“I always knew I was going to do something that involved people, particularly supporting people to be their best selves. I come from a family of educators as well as health-care professionals and it just seemed the more I learned about nursing, I was like, I think I could really find a place there.”

After obtaining her nursing degree, Carla started her practice in Saskatchewan.

“They didn't have a lot of relief staff, so as I got comfortable on a unit, they'd ask ‘Hey Carla, would you like to be orientated to Paediatrics?’ So, then Paediatrics became part of my area of practice. They slowly orientated me to most areas within the Yorkton Regional Hospital,” Carla explains. “I feel like it gave me a really good, unique perspective of folks going through different health journeys.”

“For example, a pregnant woman in the community, I might teach them prenatal classes, then I would also see them when they are in the hospital delivering their baby, and then I would also be visiting them at home after in a slightly different role in the early visiting program. So, I would see some people through quite a cycle of their health journey, and it was a really good foundation for things.”

After feeling the need for a change of scenery, Carla made the decision to come back home to Manitoba.

“I say I'm a prairie gal. The prairies have raised me.”

“I grew up in southern Manitoba but I'm finding I like Winnipeg even more than I thought I would, since I moved back,” she says. “For someone that's used to living lots of places and not living somewhere very long, this is the longest that I've lived anywhere and it's feeling like I'm settling roots in and that's a really good feeling.”

When she arrived back in Manitoba, around 15 years ago, Carla settled in as a hemodialysis nurse at St. Boniface Hospital.

“Hemodialysis is a really neat area, in that it's a mixture of acute and chronic. It's officially an out-patient unit within the hospital, but we serve folks who are admitted in hospital, as well as folks who are coming for out-patient dialysis.”

“What I like about that area and could be argued any area of nursing, there's always things updating. There's always new research emerging. It’s also a place where you really get to know your patients, and a deeper layer with which I could assess my patients,” she explains. “It builds trust and people feel more comfortable to share what's going on with them, that may or may not be related to their kidneys but still could be related to their health journey. When I would go home, I would think ‘I really helped that person today’ it was a really good sense of satisfaction in that area.”

“I still get excited at all the possibilities and potential in nursing and health care. Even today when I think about where a person could go in the nursing profession, it really does feel like there are many possibilities and opportunities,” she remarks. “Especially as our understanding of health care, of what is health, keeps expanding. There's just no end to where health is relevant in everyone's day-to- day lives, so that's kind of a little bit of what seeded me to where I'm at now.”

Carla has been unwavering in her commitment to helping others, making a positive impact wherever she goes, in every role she’s in. Which includes being elected as the NDP MLA for Tuxedo in Winnipeg earlier this summer.

“When I was in nursing school, I was involved in the nursing student association and was able to start learning how nurses can impact the nursing profession, health policy development and legislation,” Carla recalls. “There really are different facets to how a person can be a nurse, and I really do believe it's important that a nursing perspective is in those places when we talk about policy, when we talk about social determinants of health.”

“This is my personal bias, but I think having a nurse at that government table can only be helpful both for the government as well as for citizens because advocacy is very much a strong component of being a nurse,” she adds.

“You know when I'm one-to-one with a patient, advocacy can look one way. When I'm sitting at the table with the Premier, advocacy can look a different way. I really do view everything through the lens of health.”

Carla has taken a leave from St. Boniface Hospital while in office as an MLA.

“I really try to be mindful of patient therapeutic relationships as well as creating an environment that is safe for patients. The reality is I'm in a much more public role now and I would in no way want to take away from other people's treatment experience.”

“But I don't want people to feel that they have to be an MLA to be an advocate,” she emphasizes. “I don't want people to feel they have to be president of some association - if they are, that’s absolutely wonderful, but I want folks to truly know that they can have, and do have, impact in whatever their role is.”

“I think sometimes it's easy for folks to minimize what we can do, a common quote ‘I’m just a nurse’, highlighting a belief of little to no impact for the frontline nurse. But being someone that consistently shows up for your patients and in your own practice, has a direct impact on patients and their families.”

Carla has the following advice for anyone wondering how they can take on an advocacy role in their workplace.