Meet Sheila. She's a two-time graduate of Sault College, most recently from our Health Care Administration program in 2022 and our Practical Nursing program before that in 2011. Living in Elliot Lake, Sheila was able to fulfill her educational goals without leaving her family due to the online delivery options.
Sheila has been working for Serpent River First Nation for several years, first as a Nurse Supervisor and now has been promoted to the Administrator of the Home and Community Care Program within the First Nation. She feels that like many nurses who go from a front-line role in healthcare to a management position, she struggled with some of the day-to-day administration duties since she didn't have the education to support her new management position. That's when she found the Health Care Administration program here at Sault College and decided to enroll.
"It was not easy, to say the least, to work full-time while completing a full-time postsecondary program,," says Sheila. She was so lucky to have support from her family, co-workers, director and professors through it all.
Relevant Course Work
The professors welcomed Sheila's ideas to use her work experiences into her course projects. Her course work contained Indigenous subject matter which was an amazing perk since she was working on some projects at work, too. Sheila loved that her professors were experts in the field and guided her through producing high-quality work for her Director and Chief and Council. Their support helped her dig deeper into the history and challenges faced by First Nations people which made her a better healthcare professional and give them better care.
Sheila learned so much to help her succeed in her career since each course in the program was relevant to her Administrator position. Her favourite courses were Policy in Healthcare and Legal Aspects in Health - she wasn't expecting that!
No Regrets
Sheila has recommended this course to all healthcare administrators and says she will never stop. It was definitely the best decision she made for her future - and she even thinks that her education won't stop there.