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Welcome to another Flex Friday for 2024! This week, we are introducing Kaitlyn Watson, a direct-entry student going into Term 5 this Fall 2024. Kaitlyn shares her research endeavours from clinical in Term 3 and her busy lifestyle as a nursing student, dance teacher and youth leader at her church. Meet Kaitlyn!

Why did you choose to pursue nursing?
“The cliche answer is that I want to help people. I also love science, learning about skills and applying them and meeting and talking to people. I had thought about being a teacher for a long time and fortunately, there is a lot of teaching in nursing. There are also so many avenues I can take in nursing; I can travel, I can do bedside, I can continue my education and there are endless possibilities.”

Can you please describe your Term 3 clinical experience?
“The population was community-based so we would go to the Adult Day Program called Club 36 in Seton. Older adults with Alzheimer’s attend the program to take part in interventions like exercise therapy art-based therapies and have a community of other people who are experiencing the same thing. The community we focused our intervention on were caregivers for those living with dementia. We sent out surveys and questionnaires and talked to them to gain insight into what they were struggling with.”

What was the problem or gap you sought to address with your project?
“We noticed caregivers don’t take enough time for themselves. After the caregivers dropped their loved ones off at Club 36, they went for groceries, maintained household chores or did their jobs, but they seldom had time to spend on themselves. To address this, we created art-based therapy for the caregivers. This is an unexplored area for caregivers, even though there is extensive research about its benefit for the clients.”

How did you solve this gap?
“We created simple, at-home, failure-free art interventions for people who don’t need previous art skills. An example of this was an ink-blot painting which just includes putting ink on a page, putting alcohol on it, and blowing it around with a straw. This takes about 10 minutes and in those 10 minutes, caregivers can focus on only the task at hand and create something beautiful in the end. With this, we can expand the caregiver’s idea about what self-care looks like and how they can implement that in their daily life.”��
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What did this solution look like for the caregivers?
“In an ideal world, we planned to host a workshop day called “Caring for the Caregivers.” In this workshop, we showed them how to do different art-based therapies including Zen tangle, ink-blotting painting and mosaic art, how to incorporate self-care into the caregiver’s busy lives and what constitutes self-care. Due to time constraints, we made brochures explaining the importance of self-care, together with pictures and step-by-step instructions of the art-based interventions. We handed those out to the caregivers at Club 36 and even got them to try the art-based therapies.”

Did you observe any impact from this intervention?
“Totally. We talked to some of the caregivers that day and one of them said, ‘Nobody asks how I’m doing. They always ask how my husband is doing.’ It’s nice to see with this initiative that people are actually caring for the caregiver and understanding that this is not only difficult for the person with dementia but also for those people caring for them. We had really positive feedback from the small amount that we got to see. It sounds like the founder of Club 36 has been getting positive feedback since he adopted our project and expanded it.”

How are you presenting your project?
“It is going to be research-based, but we will also focus on what we did and how people can carry this on. It is a Community Health Nurses of Canada (CNHC) conference titled CHNC 2024 for Community Health Nursing - Health For All looking at all the different aspects of community health. Our project was sorted under capacity building, so we will cater our presentation towards that but still include all the research we used to back up everything. It’s both research-based and experience-based.”

Do you want to give a definition of what “capacity building” is to you?

“To me, capacity building means expanding the way that caregivers or struggling individuals can use tools and other supports to help them sustain their lifestyle and live a healthy life for themselves, especially if they are caring for somebody as well. It is having enough capacity to help themselves and help others at the same time without feeling burnt out.”

Where are you at with the process of this project? Are you currently working on anything?
“Right now, we are not focused on it too much just because we had to move on, unfortunately. We probably could have kept going on for years. The founder of Club 36 is continuing the caregiver workshop. He has done more work since we left and said that there has been great positive feedback. There is work behind the scenes, not necessarily from us, but we are going to adapt our presentation in the coming months and share this with community nurses across Canada and tell them about art-based interventions. It is known that art-based interventions are helpful for people with dementia, but it is not widely known for caregivers and how it is a great form of self-care.”
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Any final words on the whole process?
“It was the most amazing eye-opening experience. I am so grateful to Julie [Burns] and the people at Club 36 for how amazing they are and how much we learned. I did not expect to be so passionate about community health, but it was so much fun and we got to leave a meaningful impact as we did it. So, that was awesome.”

What have been your main challenges and strengths in university so far?
“Challenges are mostly time management. I am a very busy person and I do a lot of things. I think learning how to juggle everything, I have always been pretty good at that, but it comes in a whole new wave when you get into university. Figuring out how to do that has been my biggest learning curve from these past two years.

“Time management is now probably one of my biggest strengths, even though it took time for me to fully get in the groove of things. Apart from that, I also think just being open and ready for anything is one of the strengths that I have in nursing school. Being flexible is also super important. Our lives are chaotic, so being flexible to everything is another thing that I have been good at accommodating.”

What do you do outside of nursing?
“Outside of nursing, I am a dance teacher. I teach three days a week at my home dance studio. I teach competition there. I teach regular classes to kids ages three to 12, so I am constantly running around after my little kids and that takes up a lot of my time, but I absolutely love it; it is one of my biggest passions. I also volunteer at church as a youth leader and as a grade school leader.”

What has your biggest takeaway from your career as a dance teacher?
“I think just having a sense of community and having a passion for something is so big. I do not see my dance teaching as my job. I see it as something that I get to do for fun, and I am just lucky that I get paid to do it. Having this sense of community— this like "dance hood" that we all have is really special. I miss dancing myself every single day, but seeing my kids become friends, seeing them at a competition and how excited they are to go on stage is something that I will always take with me. I will never forget those backstage moments as a teacher and as a dancer.

“I think seeing both sides of it has been so amazing; the community and all of the fun things that we get to do. I think having a passion outside of my future job is so rewarding and keeps me going. If things are hard in one place, I always have one place to know that I will be happy and excited.”

How were you as a dancer and how did you transition into being a teacher?
“When I was younger, I did everything under the sun. I started to dance in grade six (12 years old). I was a figure skater for seven years. I was also a competitive singer for 10 years. I was a swimmer, a soccer player and a gymnast. So, I literally did everything.��

I stepped into the dance studio and thought, this was exactly what I wanted to do. From there, I kept working hard and taking a bunch of classes and I moved my way up quite quickly and became one of the most senior dancers at the studio in the first three years I was there. After that, I joined the competition team. I fell in love with dance competitions and performing on stage. Unfortunately, COVID-19 stopped my dance career for two years. I didn't get to compete for two seasons, which was really hard.

During my grade 12 year, the studio owner asked if I wanted to work at the dance studio. I immediately quit my job at Sobey’s and I started teaching in grade 12. I was still a student at the studio, working as a receptionist and as a dance teacher for five-year-olds. In my first year of university, I took on a much bigger role. I taught eight classes and was a receptionist as well. This year, I have also taken seven classes and started teaching my own competition classes.

Dancing and teaching at the studio where I grew up, I’ve watched kids grow from tiny tots, around three or four years old, into impressive junior dancers. It’s incredibly rewarding to see them excel. I also spent four years as a student teacher before becoming a full teacher at the studio.”

What’s your main takeaway from being a youth leader?
“I take pictures for youth groups, so I don’t have a group of my own, but seeing the kids excited to be there is a joy. I learn a lot from other leaders, pastors and the kids themselves. Going each week is fun, and the kids know me as the photographer lady. I love learning and never feel like the smartest person in the room. There’s always more to learn. In nursing, where we all have to be pretty smart, it is great to see and learn from others who can mentor me, especially since I often find myself in the role of mentor outside of youth leading.”

Has your faith influenced your decision to get into nursing?
“Faith has pushed me to be a better nurse by deepening my compassion, love and acceptance for patients from all walks of life. It will guide me in my nursing practice. It guides my practice, helping me connect with people despite differing views or backgrounds. Faith allows you to be a better nurse by understanding what patients are going through. I think having a faith background helps us guide our practice and help everybody, no matter where they come from or what they do. I think that's a really awesome part of being a Christian and also being a nurse. I believe any faith provides a sense of guidance, offering an extra push to do the right thing.”

What has been your favorite nursing topic so far?
“Labour and delivery are my favorite things to talk about. That is exactly what I want to do after nursing school; maybe obstetrics or pediatrics, but I think labour and delivery is the coolest thing in the world. Labour and delivery, prenatal, post-natal, anything mom and baby is up my alley.”

What is your biggest takeaway and success in nursing school so far?��
“People need someone to listen and a big part of nursing is being that listener who makes a difference. Even just a couple of minutes of genuine attention can significantly impact a person’s day or even their life. One of my biggest takeaways from early clinicals is the value of spending time with patients, getting to know them personally and truly making a connection.

I made a strong bond with my club member at Club 36 and leaving was an emotional experience with lots of tears on the last day. I also formed a great connection with a resident in long-term care who sadly passed away over reading week. It has been tough but she was amazing and we spent hours chatting about everything. My biggest success has been making these personal connections, getting to know people and understanding who they are.”

How do you think you have changed personally since starting nursing school?

“First of all, I’ve become more knowledgeable, which I hope would be the case. I’ve also discovered why I wanted to be a nurse. Before nursing school, I had a general idea of what nurses do, but it wasn’t until I started practicing that I felt true fulfillment and drive. I expect this sense of purpose to continue growing as I progress.”

Any advice to any incoming students or things you wish you knew before?
“Though it sounds cliché, don’t stress. The first year can feel overwhelming with five classes and a lot happening, but it goes by quickly. My first year was one of the best times of my life and it’s important to slow down and enjoy it. Even as I look forward to the end of this semester, I wish I had appreciated each moment more. So, take the time to appreciate university life and friends, not just your classes and clinicals."

Who are your biggest role models?��
“My nursing instructors are some of my biggest role models. Bev Lillywhite and Julie Burns have been my nursing instructors and I look up to both of them so much. I love everything they do and they taught me so well this past year; I am just so grateful to them. Also, my parents — my mom was a nurse. She helped me get through when my resident passed away and she knew how to empathize with me. My dad was a chiropractor and we have some great family conversations about health care and I truly appreciate their support and love they show me.”

What was the highlight of your week?
“Over reading week, I got to spend time with some university friends I met at Camp Lead. I went during my first year and I will forever thank myself for going because I met my best friends in that time. So, this is our second annual reading week trip and we went to Waterton! We had a blast; we just enjoyed each other’s company and forgot about school for just a few hours, even if we were doing homework at 8:30 in the morning. It was so nice to disconnect and enjoy time with friends in the mountains.”

Do you have other things you like to do for self-care?
“I love the mountains! I am a mountain girl through and through. I go to the mountains at least a couple times every month. I ski and hike and I still love to dance for myself because that is really a big stress reliever for me.”