Profile: Meet Erin Carter, Registered Nurse

In honour of National Nursing Week (May 10-16, 2010), we would like to share with you a profile of just some of the many wonderful nurses at Saint Elizabeth Health Care.

National Nursing Week is an opportunity to celebrate Canadian nurses for their provision of outstanding patient-centered care and dedication to advancing the health system. This year’s theme – Nursing: You Can’t Live Without It! – reflects the immense value of Canada’s largest group of health care providers.

Name: Erin Carter
Title: Registered Nurse, Saint Elizabeth Health Care, Central South East

How did you get into nursing?
I’ve been in nursing for two years now. When I was in high school my youngest sister was diagnosed with leukemia. She was in treatment for three years. A lot of our time was spent at SickKids – I could see when we were there that the most influential interactions she had were with the nurses. She saw the doctors and other health care professionals often, but her friendships and relationships were most memorable with the nursing staff. Throughout high school I made sure that I had the required courses to go into a health care profession, which became nursing.

What is your favourite part of your job?
In relation to Saint Elizabeth Health Care, being home care, it’s much more of an intimate setting that we work in. That’s something really important to me. I like the fact that I interact not only with the clients but with the families too. I call the client the night before, and they often ask their wife or husband if they will be around. It’s important that my visits are appreciated and that family members want to be a part of them.

With visiting nursing, clients oftentimes are accessing the health care system at different points. I’m learning that we are assets to the unique client experience.

How many years have you been at Saint Elizabeth Health Care (SEHC)?
I started in July, 2009.

What do you like most about working at SEHC?
It’s the fact that I’ve had to become very organized – it’s a love/hate relationship! All nurses need organizational skills – in this job you are very independent, so organizational skills not only benefit you, but the patients too.

I’ve really appreciated the opportunities that Saint Elizabeth Health Care has already offered me. I’ve been involved in a nursing leadership conference, some HOBIC assessments, and now the Care to Know Centre web site.

At the heart of health care is the client/patient experience. What stories and examples do you have of the 'best' client experience?
Last summer, I started visiting a man in his 50s who was diagnosed with lung cancer. I actually knew their family through the local community in Markham. I could relate closely to their family in terms of age and family dynamics. I began visiting him twice a week for pain and symptom management.

Through learning more about his story I realized early on that his diagnosis was palliative. They attempted surgery but the cancer had spread too far. By trying to link him with different resources, he began on chemotherapy and eventually did radiation, simply to manage his extreme amounts of pain. Over the course of about 6 months, I grew to appreciate their family, and the support that they were to him, seeing that his wife only wanted the best for him.

The last several moths were very difficult, with different treatments, and types of pain management being used, and nothing being successful. I would often leave the client’s house feeling like I had failed because every time we talked about pain, it was either the same or worse.

It was really difficult to understand what that meant, but there were a lot of positive interactions too. I was able to refer them to the visiting chaplain with SEHC, and she began to develop a deep and meaningful relationship with them near the end of his life. He passed away Dec. 31, which was 30 years to the day that he had started dating his wife.

About a month after, they had a memorial service, and being able to be a part of that brought the relationship full circle. I still think about them often and try to call his wife now and then to see how she’s doing. He was one of the first patients who I cared for throughout the entire palliative process. I learned a lot about what we can do as a visiting nurse and how to support the family.

What is the nurse's primary role in client/patient safety, and why is it so important?
The nurse is able to observe the environment – being a second set of eyes, and is able to explain why safety is so important to the specific situation.  It helps the client understand better b/c the uniqueness of what’s going on in their life.

So much of safety is prevention, and being a health care professional, going into a client’s home gives us an opportunity to talk about different ways to prevent accidents from happening.

What is something most of your colleagues do not know about you?
I went to work in East Africa right before I started working at SEHC, volunteering at a local clinic in Tanzania for six months. I really enjoyed my time there, learning the language and experiencing the culture. I do hope to be able to use the things that I learned here at SEHC, to eventually take my nursing overseas.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I like to play hockey, and I enjoy reading.

What is one of your greatest accomplishments while working at Saint Elizabeth Health Care?
Being an advocate for the patients that I visit – seeing that my assessment skills and interactions with clients often lead to better client outcomes.

Thanks to Erin Carter, RN, for participating!

Read more Profiles:
Stacey Van Schyndel, RPN
Carrol Morris, RPN

What is your most memorable nursing experience, either as a nurse or a patient/client? There are many ways to share your story –

1.    Register or log in, and from the Tools menu in the main navigation, select Contribute > Story to share your story
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