How Canadian Nurses are Advancing Planetary Health: From the Local Stage to the International Arena

Xiru Li is a Planetary Health Research Nurse with the Nursing and Allied Health Research and Knowledge Translation Department. Her clinical experience includes pediatric oncology, hematology, and hematopoietic stem cell transplant. She also has experience coordinating community, palliative, and respite care for children with medical complexities. Xiru is passionate about exploring the interconnectedness of human and planetary health to nursing practice. Her role as the planetary health research nurse will support front-line nurses at BC Cancer to implement sustainability initiatives in their clinical settings. Xiru’s goal is to promote human health through advocating for the health of our planet.

Vanessa D’Aquila, BSc(N) MSc(A)N, is the recipient of the 2021 Stephanie Davis Waste Reduction Award and Scholarship. She formed a Pediatric Intensive Care unit (PICU) Green Team in 2018 in order to limit waste consumption and advocate for sustainable initiatives across her institution. During her MSc Nursing graduate degree at McGill University she helped form McGill’s Nurses for Planetary Health (MNPH) group, and created a Vice President of Sustainability role while serving as the Nursing Graduate Student Association (NGSA) President (2021-2022). She encourages all healthcare professionals to use their voices and social influences to promote effective changes regarding planetary health into their immediate and global environments. As the current Assistant Nurse Manager at Shriners Hospital for Children – Canada, she recognizes how nurses’ role in addressing climate change could also impact the health of our patients (and all of us as part of the public). In 2020, her work received encouragement from the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (OIIQ).

Teri Forster uses she/her pronouns and advocates for planetary health through many roles. She is a nurse, an elected regional council member for the BC Nurses Union and a city councillor for Prince Rupert. She also is the Climate and Planetary Health contact for the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) in addition to work advocating with many social justice and animal rights causes. She recently completed her thesis which explored “Applying an appreciative process to explore environmentally sustainable resource use in Northern Health Authority”. She graduated from a Master of Arts in Leadership from Royal Roads University in Fall 2023, achieving honors distinction and receiving the Governor General of Canada’s Gold Medal.

Rob Samulack is a registered nurse in the Emergency Department at the Montfort Hospital in Ottawa. Rob has worked as a COVID vaccine immunizer with Ottawa Public Health, as a medicine / surgery nurse at the Smiths Falls Hospital and as a summer camp nurse.  As a nurse, Rob believes his calling is to care for people and to advocate for them. He tries to speak as often as he can about climate change and encourage others to as well.

Registration:

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