Perseverance demonstrated

Page 5

She took five years to complete her degree in nursing and become the first Aboriginal student to graduate from Trinity Western University's nursing program in Langley last year. For 34-year-old Kathleen Lounsbury, graduating with a B average from the nursing program with a bachelor of science degree, although both fulfilling and exciting, was not easy.

Lounsbury, who belongs to the Namgis Kwakwa' Wakw First Nation in Alert Bay, was born in Vancouver but raised in Coquitlam by her father. Growing up was not easy for her, or for her older brother and sister and three younger sisters. She helped her father raise her younger sisters when her mother left home in 1979 and died in a drowning accident a year later. An older sister died shortly after. Lounsbury's father, who is a well known carver in the province, would take her and her siblings to stay with relatives in Alert Bay on Vancouver Island because he wanted them to learn cultural things such as preparing fish, clam digging, sea-weed gathering, sewing and dancing.

"The cultural teachings I received then help me today to know the proper protocols when I'm around Elders, and if there is ever a potlatch or something like that I know what to do. Where dancing is concerned, I know about what the dances mean and I can speak a bit of my language now," she said.

Lounsbury earlier graduated from the Central Indian Bible College in South Dakota with a degree in biblical studies. Although she had dreamed at an early age of becoming a nurse, upon graduation she thought that she was going to be a preacher.

When Lounsbury was five-years old, she had been in the hospital, where a nurse who was both kind and gentle to her inspired her to consider a nursing career. Later, however, her father spent a lot of time ill in the hospital prior to his death in 1992. "I had doubts on being a nurse and a lot of that had to do with my late father. I saw a hospital as just a place of sickness; I did not ever feel I would be a nurse," she said.

While attending Bible college in South Dakota, however, she needed money, so she worked in a nursing home with Elders and loved it. While there, she joined a bowling league with a group of nurses, where she once again began to dream of being a nurse. "I heard them talk about nursing and I got really interested in what they were saying, but I had no idea that I was going to be a nurse. I did not even know what kind of nursing, but I said I wanted to work with Aboriginal people and I wanted to work with the elderly people to try to help them because of the times I was trying to help my dad and I felt so helpless. Today I do that," she said.

Kathleen Lounsbury failed courses in the second year due to personal matters. She was not used to failing, but her faith kept her going. "During this time I had a miscarriage, one of my friends died and a relative died and I also lost an aunt, so it was just one thing after another and I was spending so much time away when I attended the funerals. So it was a really hard time for me to concentrate."

She had to drop out of school for a year and take a few more courses and then she jumped back in. "That was kind of a difficult time. I felt in some ways that I did not know if I could make it-I went through some sadness because I failed."

Lounsbury credits both her professor Katherine Hoe Harwood and her husband for being there for her when she had to deal with personal issues. "She was an amazing lady she believed in me and that type of support was valuable to me. My husband is totally supportive; I would not have made it without him either-he is great."

She is the first student that the nursing program ever sent to a First Nations community to do a preceptorship, the part of the course which allows students to gain work experience. "They asked where I wanted to do my preceptorship and I said that I was interested in going to a First Nations community, so that is what I did."

Seabird Island First Nation wa so impressed with her, they hired Lounsbury even before she finished the program.

Lounsbury now calls Langley home. She has worked as the home and community care nurse on both the Seabird Island First Nation and Skwah First Nation reserves since May 2002.

She said that she really loves her job and the people where she works. "They are so good to me; when I enter an Elder's home they treat me like I'm one of their own."

Among her achievements she lists being the first in her mother's family to graduate. She also was honoured when she was asked to do a presentation at a conference on nursing excellence in clinical practice, education and research, at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, that was hosted by the honour society of nursing, Sigma Theta Tou International, a Canadian organization. Lounsbury spoke about biblical principals of etiquette and sexual purity for high-risk Aboriginal youth.

Keela Keeping, media relations co-ordinator at Trinity Western University, said that Lounsbury was the first Aboriginal person to graduate from their nursing program because not a lot of Aboriginal people choose to pursue an education there, and there are not a lot of Aboriginal people living in Langley.

"However, I think both these circumstances are changing, and we are seeing more and more Aboriginal students achieving post-secondary status, and I believe that is long overdue."