Candidates for Board Election

I am a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor of Nursing from the University of New Brunswick and have practiced nursing since 2015 in both New Brunswick and Yukon. Throughout my career, I have worked across a variety of settings, including acute care, perioperative nursing, community and rural nursing, public health, long-term care, palliative care, and professional practice and education.

Since moving to Yukon, I have gained valuable experience working in both Whitehorse and rural and remote communities. My experience providing nursing care in remote communities gave me a strong understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities faced by nurses working outside of Whitehorse, including the importance of accessible, equitable, and culturally responsive care.

I have also held a number of nursing leadership roles within Yukon’s health-care system, with a focus on clinical practice, education, professional development, palliative care, mentorship, competency development, and program improvement.

I am passionate about supporting nurses, strengthening professional practice, and creating opportunities for education and development. I hope to bring my broad clinical, rural and remote nursing, education, and leadership experience to the YRNA Board while helping ensure that the diverse perspectives and experiences of nurses across Yukon are represented.

I'm putting myself forward to become a YRNA board member because I believe deeply that a strong, independent, self-regulating professional body for nurses is how we protect both the nursing profession and the public who trust us to care for them.

I've been a Registered Nurse for 22 years, initially trained in England and now in the Yukon for the past 9 years. My clinical background spans front-line trauma and emergency medicine, medical and surgical in-patient care, specialist nurse practitioner practice, and community-based work in long-term care and home care. I currently work as a primary care Nurse Practitioner in Dawson City, having previously worked at Dawson City Community Hospital, and I've established an independent health and wellness service to meet local community needs. Beyond direct clinical work, I've worked in clinical governance, risk and safety, and research, and have taught at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I hold a doctoral degree for work in tissue viability nursing that contributed to workforce development outcomes supporting patient safety, and I've served on advisory boards at the national and international level. In the last five years I've also worked in the NWT and BC, and completed postgraduate primary care NP training in Alberta. 

I've been honoured to serve on YRNA's nursing practice committee and complaints committee over the past few years. Through that work and my own practice, I've been closely involved with the legislation and regulations governing nursing practice and healthcare delivery more broadly, work that has directly addressed concerns my community has raised.

If elected, I will work hard to ensure our regulatory voice remains strong, trustworthy, and responsive to the needs of the people we serve. I will work to further enhance our scopes of practice to align with expansion of nursing roles across Canada and ensure this is done with safety and public protection in mind. I hope to work on projects that reduce regulatory barriers to nurses and nurse practitioners providing comprehensive and truly holistic care and support educational frameworks that help to provide us with the frameworks we need to assure the public of our competence. I am privileged to live and work on the traditional territory of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, and I hope that serving on the board will let me engage with and reflect the values and wisdom of the First Nations peoples who share their lands with us. 

Thank you, Mähsį cho, for your consideration.

Shellby is a born and raised rural Yukoner, member of Selkirk First Nation, and Registered Nurse. It is through this lens she listens, learns and leads.

Since becoming a Registered Nurse in 2014, Shellby has worked in BC, the NWT, and Yukon. Her healthcare career encompasses acute care, rural ER, advanced practice in remote communities, health care education and health care management. Her academic endeavours include a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Graduate Certificates in Rural and Remote Nursing and Child and Youth Mental Health, and more recently a Master of Arts in Leadership Degree. Shellby is also a firm believer in work life balance; you can find her doing house projects, hiking, camping, or adventuring with her family outside of working hours!

Shellby is passionate about academia, leadership, and nursing in the north. Drawing from her professional, academic and lived experiences, Shellby aims to cultivate safe spaces for nurses to become leaders and for Yukoners to access client centered, culturally safe health care.

I am a Registered Nurse and Immunization Practice Consultant with Yukon’s Immunization Program. My nursing background is rooted in public health, particularly maternal and child health and immunization, and I hold a Master of Science in Public Health from McGill University.

A lot of my work currently involves data analysis, often in Excel spreadsheets, as well as developing clinical education and guidance and helping inform public health decisions related to immunization. It has made me value clear communication, practical solutions, reducing unnecessary barriers, and not making systems more complicated than they need to be.

I would bring a public health and population health perspective to the YRNA Board, but also a willingness to ask questions, listen carefully and change my mind when I learn something new. I do not expect to know every area of nursing, and I think that is part of the value I could bring. I am curious about how nurses work across the territory, what challenges they face and what could make things better, from the system level right down to the individual experience.

Outside of work, I love hiking, biking, gardening, exploring the Yukon and spending time with my dog, Gusto. I am currently very invested in whether my cedar trees survive the winter.

If elected, I would be genuinely excited to contribute, meet more nurses across the territory, be someone people feel comfortable reaching out to and learn more about the work of the Board along the way.

Thank you for your consideration.