On March 8, we were joined by Suzanne Braithwaite, President – Elect from the Canadian Family Practices Nurses Association (CFPNA) who shared several considerations for Registered Nurses (RN’s) working in primary care and as part of an integrated team. A Q&A session was also held with Tannis Andersen, a Clinical Nurse Specialist for primary care, and Melissa Roe, a Regional Practice Leader from Interior Health’s Professional Practice Office, where we dove into scope optimization, role ambiguity, and much more.
Suzanne Braithwaite
Suzanne is a Registered Nurse and certified Community Health Nurse with over 10 years of experience working to full scope of practice in Ontario’s primary care sector. She completed her BScN at Brock University and went on to complete her MNSc at Queen’s University where she focused her thesis on articulating and measuring nursing scope of practice enactment in the primary care setting. Suzanne is currently completing her doctoral studies at Queen’s University where she continues to explore nursing scope of practice in primary care and organizational characteristics that act as barriers or facilitators to full scope of practice enactment. Suzanne currently teaches at Trent University and is President-Elect of the Canadian Family Practice Nurses’ Association.
Tannis Andersen
Tannis acknowledges that she lives and works within the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territory of the Syilx Nation in Kelowna. Tannis is a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Primary care with Interior Health and an Adjunct Professor at University British Columbia Okanagan. Her career has covered seniors health, community, and primary care with a current focus on advancing primary care nursing at a local, provincial, and national level. Tannis is a member-at large on the Canadian Family Practice Nurses Association board.
Melissa Roe
Melissa is a Registered Nurse currently working as a Regional Practice Leader in the Professional Practice Office with Interior Health. Prior to this role, she worked as an operational manager opening two Urgent & Primary Care Centres in the Central Okanagan. Melissa is grateful to live as an uninvited guest on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx (Okanagan) Peoples in Kelowna. In her free time, you can find her out enjoying nature with her two dogs, travelling, taking care of her plants, camping or curled up with a good book.