A student of the circle of life

Tazim Esmail

Name: Tazim Esmail

Occupation: Nurse since 1999

Works at Louis Brier Home & Hospital

Union: BCNU

She soon became a union ward representative at her worksite and then a BCNU Steward. It was a natural progression for someone to whom colleagues instinctively turned to with their concerns and queries. “I am able to advocate for them and and help them access the resources they need,” says Esmail. Now in her latest role as the Steward Liaison for BCNU’s Shaughnessy Heights Region, she works with Stewards at several workplaces and provides support to multiple sites so all BCNU members have access to their union.

She says her parents inspired her to pursue a career in nursing, with a physician father and a mother who taught her to be nurturing by example. Esmail says that “from a young age, I always had compassion for seniors.  In our East-indian community, we spend so much time with our grandparents, and we help to care for them at the end of their lives.”

As a teenager Esmail volunteered at Chilliwack General Hospital caring for seniors. By the time she left that program, she was supervisor of all the candy-stripers at the hospital.  Her father told her later that nurses back then noticed her interact with their patients and said she had a natural rapport with seniors.  “They told him they saw a future nurse,” remembers Esmail.  “I guess I just found my niche.”As the youngest student in her nursing class, Esmail says that “it’s great to know what you want to study and then go into that program right away”. Her passion and hard work paid off when she graduated with distinction in 1999, all while volunteering and doing companion work with seniors.

On working in a long term care facility, Esmail explains that “it is their last home in the last stages of life, so the topics of death and dying come in. We want patients to have dignity and respect during their final days. I’m able to support them and their family through the palliative process and explain complex things in a way that is easy to understand. You spend the time that’s needed in an unhurried manner and are present with them.”

“If family members end up staying overnight to be near a patient in the final stages of life, we make sure they have eaten and so on.  You put yourself in their position. I remember when my grandparents passed on, how those nurses reached out to us. Now I want the families of my patients to feel cared for while they are dealing with losing their loved one, helping them go through that process,”  concludes Esmail.  “We care for the whole family, not just the patient”.