Françoise Filion is an assistant professor at the Ingram School of Nursing, McGill University, since August 2010. She is currently teaching community health nursing to third year students of the bachelor's program. She is also a clinical teacher in post-partum at the Ingram School of Nursing.
On this day, August 9th, people from around the world are encouraged to spread the UN’s message on the protection and promotion of the rights of indigenous peoples including self-determination and to traditional lands, territories and resources.
Why did you choose to pursue nursing/to become a nurse?
I always wanted to be a nurse, I found it was such a humanistic profession, I was attracted by the scientific aspect but also by the artistic aspect; by the therapeutic relationship that you build with the individual in your care, his/her family, but also with the community or the population around them. The very privileged contact nurses have with people attracted me very much. From the beginning of my career as a nurse, I wanted to favour the human contact. As a very young nurse, I often spent my suppertime with my older patients who did not have many visitors. You learn so much from seniors; it is fascinating and rewarding to hear their stories. After one year of experience in a medical-cardiology floor, I decided to work in a surgical intensive care unit (SICU). I told myself that I needed experience in the acute aspect of nursing care. It was a lovely experience, but I was not totally happy. After two years of SICU work, I applied for a position as a nurse clinician in an outpatient clinic at the hospital where I worked. Although I did not get the position, I had a very informative conversation with Dr. Judith Shamian who worked in nursing management at the hospital. She told me I did not have enough experience and to get some practice in community work, which, she said, would fulfill my desire for direct contact with people and provide a humanistic view on population health. I did a master’s degree in community health and then became a public health nurse for several years. It was wonderful! Then, at the insistence of my professor at the graduate level, I enrolled in a PhD program. I did all the required courses, but after one year, and as my family continued to grow, I realized pursuing my PhD put too much strain on my home life with three young children. I continued working with my thesis advisor, Dr. Celeste Johnston, and worked for 13 years at the School of Nursing as her project director, studying pain in neonates while teaching part-time at the baccalaureate level at the Faculté des Sciences Infirmières de l’université de Montréal. When my dear boss and friend Celeste retired, I was offered a teaching position at the Ingram School of Nursing (ISoN) in Community Health, and since then, it has been a wonderful journey integrating population health, community, Indigenous health, social justice and health equity.
What led you to GAIHN and Indigenous Health (among your other) areas of interest? Why?
I did not know about the Global and Indigenous Health Nursing (GAIHN) initiative at ISoN. However, when Dr. Anita Gagnon became the director of ISON, I went to speak to her about our work in community health, especially our partnerships with community organizations helping underserved populations, to make sure we could continue to have some funding for our annual Health Fair showcasing the student’s projects. She found our work interesting and as she was just new at her position and was preparing our ISoN strategic plan, she asked me to take on one of the strategic goals, which is to define ISoN service to the community. The three key takeaways were to make service to community more explicit in our mission, make our service engagement more visible outside ISoN, and to explore a student-led clinic. Dr. Gagnon soon realized our community work was overlapping with ISoN Global Health activities, led by my colleague Jodi Tuck, whom I approached in order to rally our strengths and work as one voice. As I love to work in a team, it was great to join forces with Jodi. Jodi became co-chair of GAIHN at the international level and I became co-chair of GAIHN at a local level. GAIHN is all about social justice and health equity and a lot of the work is done with different underserved populations. Indigenous health was always a great interest of mine, as my colleague Diana Gausden and I were working with a community organization serving an Indigenous population in our community-health nursing course already. As Jodi and I were given an opportunity to expand our work with Indigenous populations, we applied on a grant to provide more opportunities to students to work with Indigenous populations, locally, rurally and far north communities. The Ashukin program was born (Ashukin means “bridge” in Naskapi, Atikamekw and Cree), the very appropriate name that our Indigenous nurse consultant Glenda Sandy proposed to us. Ashukin allows more undergraduate students to work with Indigenous communities. Since the start of the Ashukin Program last January 2018, we have now more than 55 students who have had the chance to work closely with different Indigenous populations, either doing a primary-prevention project or working directly with a nurse preceptor. I was also given the opportunity to explore for a nurse-led clinic in January 2017. I asked Hugo Marchand (academic director of the ISoN learning labs) to work on this project with me and we realized the first ISoN nurse-led clinic with the community organization l’Accueil Bonneau in September 2017. After a pilot year, the clinic has now been renewed until 2023. Since its opening, 30 students, undergraduate and Direct-Entry (DE) graduate, and several faculties have had the opportunity to work directly with an underserved population (with our very dedicated nurse clinician Gisèle Poirier) to experience outreach-community nursing.
What motivated you to join the faculty at the Ingram School of Nursing?
Joining ISoN was not planned…it happened during an informal conversation with former ISoN Director Dr. Hélène Ezer while I was preparing the retirement celebration of my former boss and full ISoN professor Dr. Celeste Johnston. As my job in research was ending and because I had several years of experience teaching at Université de Montréal, Dr. Ezer asked me if I was interested in teaching full time at the School of Nursing. I thought about it and I accepted, starting on August 16, 2010 teaching community-health nursing at the undergraduate level. As my first language is French, learning to teach in English was a very interesting challenge for me, and very exciting and rewarding. Joining the faculty at ISoN permitted me to entrench myself in social justice and health equity, which are in tandem with my goals and objectives as a public health nurse. Teaching students and partnering with community organizations serving marginalized populations, I strive to transmit my passion for service to community and populations with humility. Moreover, students develop their leadership abilities in creating primary prevention projects joining as allies to fulfill a health education need for the community and its population. I am very happy I have said yes to Dr. Ezer and to have joined the ISoN community. It is very fulfilling working with colleagues who have the same commitment to providing the best learning environment possible, and offering all the opportunities achievable for students.
What do you love the most about your job?
I love to teach because I learn all the time, every day I worked as an educator at ISoN. I love to teach, I love to transmit my passion for nursing and my enthusiasm to serve individuals, their families, communities and populations at moments in their lives where we can help them find their own solutions in authentic partnerships. I also love the great opportunities I get to have as an educator to plant a seed in a young mind and to let it surface when the timing is right for the person. I also strive to support my students in their endeavours, to allow them to reach their goals and go further in their professional lives. I would not be able to accomplish this if I was not an educator. I also love the conversations with students, to question them, to be authentic; I learn so much from them. I appreciate their observations for me to improve, to be a better educator and person. I love to have had the chance to immerse students within rural and northern Indigenous communities, to appreciate their uniqueness and have a reciprocal conversation about their projects. I love that I had the chance to experience outreach nursing, to work with community organizations helping underserved populations, and for students to connect and appreciate them as well. I am also very grateful for the opportunity to work on a nurse-led clinic, the McGill-Bonneau clinic, where a population of men with a history of homelessness can see nurses and nursing students to discuss their health issues. The chances to see people where they are at and connect with them on their own terms. Helping to develop student’s outreach clinical judgement within our nursing scope of practice. Working with people’s strengths in a Strengths-Based Nursing/Healthcare (SBNH) mindset. And lately, I’ve even been afforded the opportunity to participate in research and interprofessional work in human trafficking. Without being an educator at ISoN, none of this would have been and be possible.
What are top three (doesn’t have to be three, could be one, could be ten!) things you want people to know about nursing in general?
Nursing is a profession with multiple facets and opportunities. Every nurse is a leader, a mentor, an advocate, an educator, a communicator, a team player, and a manager. Nursing allows for privileged connections with people in very vulnerable moments of their lives, in very joyful moments, in very solemn moments, in every part of human life. Nursing is at the heart of caring for individuals, families, communities, populations, and systems, to assist, to support, to listen, to accompany, to advocate for health, for quality of life, for recovery, or for palliative care. Nursing is my profession and I am very proud to be called a nurse.