KIMBERLY BLAIR

What brought you to Mohawk College?

It took me 10 years to save up enough courage and money to go back to Mohawk College full-time to become a nurse. I had previously completed a 3 year program decades before for Industrial Management Technology, and had a wonderful experience then. Why wouldn't I not have another great experience learning again?! I was so right to make Mohawk the choice!!! Their practical nursing program was amazing with it being held at McMaster University to enable us to learn in their labs. We had amazing opportunity to use and see real human specimens encased in glass and have the honour of being able to work with cadaver body parts to really understand how our human bodies work. Nowhere else offered that opportunity - it was amazing. The profs were excellent, the teaching so thorough and what I needed not only to pass the RPN exam, but prep me to apply my nursing skills specializing in geriatric nursing.

Tell us about your favourite Mohawk experience?

I remember it was hilarious when some of us were doing extra training in the area where they had SimMan in another bed. All of a sudden we heard this breathing, but it was only us in the big room. Was it a ghost?! It totally freaked me out, but we almost all died laughing when we figured out it was just the SimMan breathing and not some Mohawk ghostie...too funny!

What impact has Mohawk had on your life?

I went back to college at 52 years old, and I was learning with most students half my age. But we got along and had so much fun - age is just a number. I was so worried that I wouldn't fit in, which was not the case at all!!! The impact Mohawk made on my life is that you are NEVER too old to learn, and change your career. I did, and I couldn't be happier as a nurse.

What are you up to now?

I am a nurse ADNC/MDS RAI coordinator with Schlegel Villages. I complete nursing assessments and enter resident assessment coding and create care plans for people in long-term care. When I do entries with rationale for care planning into the huge software system that is tied into the Ministry of Health/Long-Term Care it determines funding. I must develop care plans that are not only accurate and effective for best quality of life for residents, but also accurate or the funding won't match our needs for human resources who perform the care. It is imperative that I am accurate! I also do infection prevention & control to help protect our most vulnerable from COVID-19 in 2023 so what happened in the first wave in long-term care will never ever ever happen again.