June 30, 2022
In a demanding profession where they selflessly give a lot of themselves, three newly-hired St. Boniface Hospital nurses say it’s been a pleasant surprise to get something back.
Registered nurses Sidrah Khawaja (below), Lauren MacPherson (above, right), and Sheli Rubinchik (above, left) are this year’s lucky recipients of the Wyrzykowski Family Graduate Nurse Endowment Fund. All are recent graduates of the University of Manitoba’s Bachelor of Nursing program and started their jobs at St. Boniface Hospital in the fall of 2021.
The Wyrzykowski family – longtime and generous supporters of the Hospital – established the endowment fund to reward graduates employed in their first nursing jobs. A random draw of the 64 eligible graduates hired in 2021 was held during National Nursing Week in May of this year.
St. Boniface Hospital nurse Sidrah Khawaja.
Khawaja (2B Surgery) came off a night shift and realized the next day she had missed a call from Rhonda Cairns, Executive Director, Health Services and Chief Nursing Officer, St. Boniface Hospital. “I checked my voice mail, and she said I had won this award. I thought it was a mistake,” said Khawaja. “I called her back to explain that I hadn’t entered in any draw, and she said all nursing graduates hired at the Hospital were automatically entered each year. It was a great surprise!”
MacPherson (Women and Child Resource Team, 4B Gynecology) and Rubinchik (Specialty Resource Team, CR4 Cardiac Surgery) also received calls from Cairns with the good news. “It was a nice surprise,” said Rubinchik.
“It was a huge surprise,” agreed MacPherson. “I had to think, was this legitimate, or a random phone call? After Rhonda explained on the phone, it was very exciting. I felt fortunate to be one of the recipients.”
Working an opportunity for learning
For Khawaja, the career choice of health care came from a family experience. “I went into health care because of my younger brother. He has been in and out of hospitals most of his life, so I grew up in a hospital setting,” she said. “When I was little, there was one nurse who always took extra time to come and check on him, and she often checked in with our family. I wanted to be able to bring even a fraction of that compassion and care to someone else one day.”
MacPherson was into science in high school and university. “I always loved biology classes, learning about the human body – anatomy, physiology, I loved all of that,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to work helping people, being able to work face-to-face with them. I had talked to others who were in nursing, asked them about their experiences, and then decided to try it after my second year in university.”
Rubinchik found her calling through her aunt, who is a nurse. “I wanted a rewarding career that would let me help people, and nursing is that for me,” she said. Once patients are stable enough after open-heart surgery, Rubinchik and her colleagues provide post-operative care.
“They often come to us with chest tubes and pacemaker boxes, so we pull out their chest tubes, their wires, and take care of their incisions.”
Nursing teaches you a lot about yourself and how you handle situations, Khawaja said, reflecting on how much she’s learned on the job. “When they talk about that in school, you don’t think about it. But when you’re working, I’m pretty sure I’ve learned something new every single day. Many of my co-workers have been doing this for 20 years or more. I am very grateful for the team I get to work with, and the support I’ve had as a new nurse on 2B.”
Being able to leave work at the end of a shift knowing she’s helped someone keeps MacPherson motivated. “I got into nursing to make an impact, to make a difference,” she said. “I’m also fascinated by the medical side of it. Being able to see different things and learn how to care for patients. It’s a lot to learn, and it’s rewarding.”
Debt repayment a priority
As to what the nurses will do with their windfalls, paying off debt was top-of-mind for them all.
“Hopefully, take some money and put it into savings. Paying off some debt will be helpful…probably a little something nice for myself along the way, too,” admitted MacPherson.
Khawaja claimed she hadn’t thought it over yet. “It would be nice to pay off some student loans. I’ll save it and think of something to treat myself, but nothing extravagant. I’m trying to save for a house,” she said.
“I’ll put it aside to further my education,” said Rubinchik. “Maybe do my master’s degree next. Or travel. Maybe both!”
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