Christie Cowan
The Ottawa Hospital

I am nominating Christie Cowan, RN, NSWOC for the incredible nurse award.

Christie works at The Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus for 13 years in medicine, critical care and is now a nurse specialized in wounds, ostomy, and continence.

In April 2021, Christie volunteered to return to the ICU during the 3rd wave while balancing her 3 young children doing virtual learning. In a matter of 2 weeks her and her family changed their entire schedule to accommodate her redeployment. Christie learned the electronic charting in 2 days and had her own assignment after her first set helping the workload in the ICU tremendously in a high time of need.

During her redeployment, Christie started a blog about her experience including how much death she saw along with many issues and feelings that came along with the third wave. It started as being therapeutic for her but the feedback she was getting from her peers is that it was therapeutic for us as well. Christie was giving us a voice. As the summer went on and Christie went back to her normal position, she continued to be involved and speak more publicly about issues and gaps in the healthcare system in Ontario, like Bill 124 and the nursing shortage. Christie found that the public did not really understand how the healthcare system worked or what nurses really did on the job and decided the public needed to be better educated in how the system works and its issues before they vote in June.

In the fall of 2021, she created a podcast called Beyond the Bedpan – where health care is never within normal limits. Her podcasts have been really inspiring to many nurses at TOH as well as across the province of Ontario. She talks about issues in the nursing profession from new nurses, retaining mid-career nurses and recruiting retired nurses. She also talks to friends who have been patients to get their experience and how the healthcare system can improve from a patient point of view. This mirrors The Ottawa Hospitals values of putting the patients first and treating them like they are our own. Understanding their experience is critical to being motivated in providing world class care. What I like best about the podcast is how it encourages nurses to stay in the profession, changing the emphasis to how we can improve it instead of leaving it all together.

What the most enjoyable thing is about how Christie advocates for our profession is how she does it in a positive and encouraging way. Other nurses doing the same show their anger, whereas Christie takes an approach that I feel is more listened to. It focuses on, “how do we fix it?” and not, “we hate it!” Her podcast and the way she speaks is so relatable, she really portrays that we are human and not heroes, and that we are equal and important. She empowers every single one of us.

Christie really has gone above and beyond. Her redeployment had her putting her ICU team and covid patients first during a difficult time at home balancing the complications that came along with school closures. Once that was over, she kept going, she supported nurses everywhere, empowering and encouraging us to continue with our career and find our love for what we do again. Her podcast is really enjoyable and inspiring, and her positive attitude is a breath of fresh air when it comes to politics and healthcare advocacy.

Basically she’s super nurse and I think it’s crazy she hasn’t been recognised before now.

Nominated by: Hayley

SECOND NOMINATION

I would like to nominate Christie Cowan for this honor. Christie has been with TOH for over 10 years as well as has a successful podcast advocating for nurses.

Story: I would like to nominate my colleague Christie Cowan . She is professional, compassionate and has just the right amount of spark. Her accomplishments include nursing for over 10 years on surgery & critical care units, a successful nursing podcast and a specialty in Wounds & Ostomy. Throughout this pandemic she has shown an incredible resilience and fortitude.

Christie and I work on a Wound & Ostomy specialty team. She is one of the smartest people I know. Working as an ICU nurse and raising 3 children has given Christie an intuition for when things go awry parallel only to Peter Parker’s Spidey-sense. I have seen her diagnose fistulas and other conditions “based on a feeling” while doctors were still scratching their heads over CT imaging. She is strong advocate for her patients and is frequently sought out by medicine and surgery teams for advice. She is a great mentor and has taught myself as well as many of the staff nurses advanced wound & ostomy skills, from negative pressure wound therapies to advanced pouching techniques.

Christie really showed her bravery during this pandemic. When our ICU was critically short staffed, she volunteered for redeployment. Despite the uncertainty of what she would be dealing with and fears of bringing COVID home to her children, Christie volunteered to go. Even though it had been a while since she did critical care, she readily took charge and took on care for the sickest Covid patients. It was hard for her and her colleagues to see such a large amount patients not recover in such a short period of time. But Christie didn’t leave, she found her grit and kept on delivering the best possible patient care available. This was of course amid trying to juggle 3 children who consistently needed covid tests or to stay home from school. Of course, she was amazing and still goes back to assist when she can.

I think the most important work Christie does is through her podcast “Beyond the Bedpan”. The podcast features guests from different parts of the medical field as well as every-day citizens who have interacted with the health care system.  Important issues are discussed such as bill 124, staff retention and what other options are available to nurses than bedside. Many nurses have lost hope and are looking to leave the profession altogether, but this podcast tells them about other opportunities within nursing. Wondering what it is like to work as a specialist nurse or start your own business? Wonder how to advocate for yourself and nursing? Curious about the patient experience? Answers can finally be found through “Beyond the Bedpan”.  There are nurses who have stayed in the profession because of Christie. Truly nothing is more important right now than keeping the spark alive in nurses.

I am so grateful to work with Christie at our hospital. it is inspiring to watch her make such positive changes in the nursing field. It is an honor to be her colleague and friend.

Nominated by:

Kimberly Hoggard