Foreword

It was not until 2002 that the first collection of stories by nurses who have worked in Canada’s north was published in book form. This unparalleled publication, entitled Northern Nurses: True Nursing Adventures from Canada’s North, edited by J. Karen Scott and Joan E. Kieser, had scarcely come off the press, when a northern nurse sent a manuscript to Scott and encouraged her to produce another volume, reminding her that there were many other nurses who had stories to tell about their adventures. What you have before you is a second volume of fascinating and unique, true stories written by nurses and other people about their experiences, not only on the land, but also on the sea and in the air.

Most of the stories in this volume happened within the past 70 years. They range from giving health care to individuals, families, schoolchildren, and in many instances, to the community as a whole. Experiences in industrial and maritime nursing and in epidemics are also described. Many of the authors give their vivid first-person accounts of the expanded nursing roles, in what is now called Primary Health Care. Stories about the challenges and risks of using air transport in and out of remote areas in extreme weather conditions and the many maps and pictures help to give “outsiders” a beginning grasp of the vastness of Canada’s North.

Historian Marc Bloch emphasizes that if we are to get meaningful grasps of “human history,” it is essential that we have “accounts of eye-witnesses.” These “eye-witness” narratives by nurses and others who have lived in the far North of Canada, collected by Scott and Kieser, constitute wonderful historical gems of the history of health care in Canada. To paraphrase nursing historian Arlee Hoyt McGee: Knowledge of the history of nursing in Canada’s remote areas makes a difference in how nursing is understood. Both volumes of Northern Nurses are valuable sources for learning about many of the ways humans can help each other, even with limited resources and often amidst life-threatening circumstances.

Like the first volume, this book will be of primary interest to all those who live and work in the north. As it has significance far beyond nursing in remote areas, it is a “must” for all health science libraries, health educators, students in any of the health sciences and for health priority and policy-decision makers. It is also a “must” for all nurses, school teachers, clergy, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, diamond miners, oil drillers, and for anyone who may be thinking about living in remote areas of Canada’s North.

Dr. Stinson is Professor Emerita, Faculty of Nursing and Dept. of Public Health Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

 

Introduction

Let us take you on a trip across the top of the world. Nurses and a few fellow adventurers who have lived and worked in Canada’s North over the past 70 years will be your tour guides. Travel with them across five and half time zones, through many of Canada’s isolated areas: from Vancouver Island to the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Labrador, and Newfoundland, as well as remote northern communities in central Canada. We hope that in reading these stories you will have a sense of the vastness of our country and of the isolation in which nurses have chosen to work.

By entering into the experiences of these authors, you will appreciate that Canada’s north is vast and varied. The terrain includes the rugged mountains of the Yukon, the permafrost and barren flats of the Central Arctic, and the fjords and glaciers of Baffin Island. Weather can be equally variable, with bitter High Arctic blizzards and 35° summer days on the surface, and the appearance and disappearance of the northern lights in the cosmos. All of these affect one’s ability to move and communicate in the north, and so influence the way these stories unfold.

Distances and an unforgiving land make air travel indispensable. Northern pilots are expert flyers who are able to get a plane on or off the ground under hair-raising conditions. Northern nurses trust them. The heroism of nurses and pilots is evident in the risk to their own lives in their efforts to deliver patients safely to hospital. Uppermost in their minds is saving a life – it is all in a day’s work. In the northern territories, a very limited road system is possible, which is better in the winter, when the rivers and lakes are used as roads. One main road leads north from Hay River to Yellowknife, with travel at the whim of the weather as you cross the Mackenzie at Fort Providence, either on the ice bridge or the ferry. During freeze-up or breakup, all traffic grinds to a halt, and fresh produce has to be flown in, charged by the pound. In the Yukon, the Alaska Highway provides more transportation options, but brings with it another set of health problems and emergencies. From the Alaska Highway, the Klondike leads to Dawson City, and the Dempster goes all the way to Inuvik in the NWT. Although these roads are useful, most travel is done by air. But the deciding factor of weather remains.

Many of these stories take place before the first Anik communications satellite was launched in 1972. Nursing stations had two-way radios that worked most of the time. Contact with the other stations and with the hospital in their zone depended on the northern lights, which could knock out the signals for days. Today, even with all the advanced communications technology, the experience and expert decision-making skills of the nurses are still essential.

With the added responsibilities of working in isolation, we had to meet the challenges of the extended role of nursing, before that role was recognized – before degrees and certificates were presented to confirm our added skills. And, we learned just how capable we all were! The northern experience cannot be duplicated here in the south. A sense of adventure, independence, and survival instincts set northern nurses apart from their southern sisters.

Most of the areas where northern nurses work are sparsely populated. Eighty percent of Canada’s population lives within 160 km of the Canada-US border – that leaves a lot of space for the remaining 20%. The Yukon, with 531,844 square km, has a population of 31,227 (Stats. Canada, 2005) and eight language groups. The Northwest Territories covers 1,299,070 square km with a population of 42,944 and nine languages. In Yellowknife alone, 35 languages are actually spoken. Nunavut, with 1,900,000 square km has a population of 29,683 (2005), most of whom speak at least one of the six dialects of Inuktitut. In all three territories, French and English are official languages, along with Aboriginal languages.

Today in the north there are Inuit and First Nations nurses who speak the traditional languages. Many of us nurses, in earlier times and to this day, have relied heavily on our local clerk/interpreters. Work in the stations would have been impossible without them. They were constantly training nurses new to the north. Theirs was the hardest job of all, as they never were off duty, whether at the Bay, out in the community, or at home. I admire their work and the patience they showed all of us.

Most of the contributing authors were in the north before Nunavut came into being and know the communities by their former names. Therefore, we have provided maps with the old and new names. This was a challenge, as there are not consistent spellings for names of places. Each of the northern territories has a toponymist, someone who studies place names. One toponymist explained to me that the spelling of a community name may differ from village to village, depending on slight variances in local dialects.

Since work on this book began, three nurses who have contributed greatly to healthcare in the North have passed away: Vera Robert, a nursing legend in Baffin; Anne Pask Wilkinson, public health nurse extraordinaire in Yellowknife, and Margaret Campbell Jackson, pioneer in public health in north central British Columbia. Anne was pleased to give permission to use her story for this book. Margaret had started her piece, but was not able to complete it.

We nurses are lucky to have Joan Kieser as co-editor of this project. Her interest in our careers in the north and her long hours spent editing our stories have given us a voice and turned our stories into a very exciting book.

So sit back, read, and enjoy our stories in Northern Nurses II. Travel from coast to coast to coast with the authors, as they reveal their adventurous spirit, talent, and creativity in delivering health care to all of the citizens of Canada’s North.

J. Karen Scott RN, BScN