Beyond the Classroom

Ashlyn Landmark ’25 BScN Provost Health Centre

Ashlyn Landmark’s colleagues at the Provost Health Centre affectionately call her “homegrown,” a nod to her roots on a farm just outside the 2,000-person east central Alberta town. For 23-year-old Landmark, working here fulfils a lifelong dream. She now works alongside the doctor who delivered her and finds deep purpose in serving her close-knit community.

Landmark’s love for nursing began at age eight, caring for her great-grandparents at the local nursing home, washing their faces, feeding them and interacting with all of the older residents. She chose nursing over full-time farming, though she still spends time helping on the farm. The variety of rural health care appeals to her more than the routine of a city hospital.

“Every day is different here. One day you’re caring for geriatric patients, maybe a couple of pediatric patients, then the next day you might have a palliative patient, a maternity case comes in, maybe an infant, or there might be a trauma patient,” says Landmark.

With only three RNs and an LPN for 16 acute care beds and the emergency department, the team relies on each other. Landmark is taking extra training and buddy shifts to prepare for the responsibility. The tight-knit team works together, often caring for neighbours, friends and family, which reinforces their strong sense of connection.

“Here, you do all the specialties in one place,” says Landmark. “So that’s why I say, ‘Rural is a specialty of its own.’ ”

Lanie Stafford ’24 BScN Edson Healthcare Centre

The great outdoors feeds Lanie Stafford’s soul. She chose Edson for clinical experience and for her first nursing job because it’s halfway between the mountains and Edmonton.

Plus, she loves the feeling of community connection when she runs into former patients at the grocery store, including a two-month-old girl whose parents recently stopped Stafford in the produce aisle to thank her for helping with the birth.

Stafford was in the second year of her four-year degree when a rural nurse came to speak to the class and piqued her interest.

“I love that I don’t have to choose one discipline. We have people ranging in age from newborn to 100-plus in our acute care unit. And we have the opportunity to work in emergency, labour and delivery, postpartum, the operating room and public health,” says Stafford. “It’s so amazing to experience all of those opportunities, working in one setting.”

Stafford says that diversity of learning experiences means her career can advance quickly.

Just nine months after graduation, the 21-year-old RN now works four 12-hour shifts per week, sometimes as the charge nurse. Six nurses, including three LPNs, run the 20-bed acute care unit and the emergency department.

While Stafford is not sure she’ll stay in Edson forever, she knows she’ll stay in rural Alberta.

“I think that everyone should try rural nursing, no matter what you think you’re interested in, because rural health care has a little piece of everything. And our system needs rural nurses, so I think that everyone should try it — not only for their own sake, but because it’s a societal need.”

Kristen Germaine ’25 BScN Sylvan Lake Community Health Centre

As a high school teacher, Kristen Germaine brought biology to life for her students by teaching them about their bodies. Then she wondered how she could take that to the next level to make an even bigger difference in people’s lives.

“I wanted to take that foundational knowledge and apply it to helping people,” she recalls.

Germaine headed to the U of A for a two-year after-degree in nursing and has been working in home care in Sylvan Lake, Alta., since she finished her nursing degree in April. Germaine made a point of choosing rural placements throughout her training, gaining a wealth of experience in Sylvan Lake, Red Deer and Wetaskiwin, Alta.

Germaine loves her role in home care in Sylvan Lake, where she combines home visits and clinical work. She takes pride in being a supportive health-care connection point for patients coming home from the hospital and those wanting to stay independent in their homes for as long as possible.

Rural nursing roles provided her a unique opportunity to draw on her diverse skill set, knowledge and resources. They also inspired her to want to pursue the nurse practitioner program in the future and further her education to help more people.

“Independent and diverse practice draws me, along with the rich opportunity to build strong and trusting health-care relationships within the community,” Germaine says. 

She finds it rewarding to help increase access to health care for the community and improve the health and well-being of people in Sylvan Lake and the surrounding areas.