One of my best student experiences was during my master's at the ISoN. I started the Nurse Practitioner program in september 2014, which coincided with the election of a new government, first provincially, then federally. On the provincial level, our new minister of health initiated the most massive reform of the healthcare system we'd seen in decades. It was a scary and confusing time, as I was unclear how all theses massive changes would affect my future work. I soon found out I wasn't the only one with these apprehensions, and a few of us decided to get together to try and read and understand the new healthcare laws that were just coming into effect.
We realized we had very little policy experience, and eventually turned our little discussion group into a dynamic association called McGill Nurses for Healthy Policy. This group welcomed as equals any member of the ISoN, whether undergrads, grad students and faculty. Over the course of my masters, we organized incredible events to discuss nursing politics that gathered hundreds of people. Together we learned from policy experts, nurse politicians, nurse leaders from all different backgrounds and journalists. We wrote our first policy statement on opening our doors to refugees in the midst of the Syria crisis. It was published in the McGill Daily.
Many more have come since then. We slowly developed an expertise in nursing policy and most of us continue to do so to this day. McGill Nurses for Healthy Policy remains an active group on campus and is important in allowing students to ask and discuss complex political issues that affect nurses and health. We built what we needed to learn about health policy, and how to influence it. We learned leadership skills, and had a lot of fun while we were at it. That was a student experience that will stay with me forever.