Karma compels nurses’s commitment to caring
Name: Pannarasee Wishit
Occupation: Nurse since 1987, works at Langley Memorial Hospital’s Medical Unit
Union: BCNU
Pannarasee Wishit is a well-educated, highly-trained and talented nurse. But she felt that her workplace English language skills “inhibit me from stepping up into certain nursing specialties that interest me. It holds me back.” That’s why being a member of the BC Nurses’ Union (BCNU) was invaluable to her, as she was able to participate in a course specifically tailored at helping Internationally Educated Nurses better succeed in the Canadian practice environment titled ‘Communicating at Work’.
Billed as an opportunity to “improve your capacity for successful communication with your peers, your patients and their families,” the course is one of many offered year-round by BCNU’s busy Education Department for union members. Participants receive assistance from the BCNU and management in arranging time off.
“I am a nurse because I like to help patients by using my knowledge and teaching others. When I go home I love reading medical textbooks! When I was growing up, my father approved of nursing as a favourable profession for a young woman. In Thai culture, we are Buddhists; we think that if we do good for others we will get good things back.”
Her high marks in secondary school meant that she got into a good school, Mahidol University. Her family was very proud when she graduated and became a nurse in 1987.
“After completing a nursing degree, you have to work at the university hospital where you trained while in school. In Thailand, the government pays you to go to nursing school. So then you have to work for two years in the government hospitals. After that, you can choose to work for a private hospital. Government hospitals serve everyone poor or rich, but in a private hospital, if you have money, you don’t have to wait for the doctor to come, you’re like a king. But you pay triple what is normal.”
She met her future Canadian husband in Thailand through a mutual friend. “At first we didn’t think we would move but when I became pregnant in 2001, my husband said he wanted to go back to his country. We want our child to enjoy good education and healthcare that we have in Canada.”
“In 2001, before I came I contacted CRNBC to get all the forms I would need and prepared my educational documents,” says Pannarasee. After successfully completing required TOFL courses and the nursing refresher course at Kwantlen University, it took about one year from the start of that process until she applied for and got her current job at Langley Memorial Hospital in 2008.
“Langley is a small hospital with good teamwork among nurses and staff.”
Coming from a country where nurses are not unionized, Pannarasee shared the following insight: “I may not know much about unions yet, but one thing I know is that BCNU is there to support nurses,” citing the ‘Communicating at Work’ as an example of how the union supports its members’ nursing practice.
“Nurses should look to their union and see what they have to offer.”