Student participates in Canadian Nurses Association first anti-Indigenous racism knowledge webinar

On Sept. 29, the Canadian Nurses Association is holding its first anti-Indigenous racism knowledge sharing webinar and a UCalgary Nursing rural nursing student will be on the panel. 

Savannah Large is a Plains Cree nursing student originally from Whitefish Lake First Nation, north of Edmonton. She is currently in her final semester of the Bachelor of Nursing Rural Community Route program, in the St. Paul cohort. Large currently works at three hospitals, one in Edmonton and two rural hospitals as a casual, working shifts while also studying.

Large grew up in Whitefish Lake, which has a small population of roughly 1,200 people, and her mom is from Saddlelake Cree Nation. In 2022, Large graduated from the Licensed Practical Nurse program delivered by NorQuest College. 

Anti-Indigenous racism webinar

The virtual event will bring together health-care professionals, policy-makers and community leaders to share knowledge, experiences and strategies to create a more equitable and culturally safe health-care environment.

Large will be sharing her lived experience as an Indigenous nurse and student. “Our First Nations community went through residential schools and it has effects on generation to generation that’s passed down,” she says. 

“Those effects are still felt today in the health-care system, like mistrust. Indigenous patients in the system have a difficult time trusting those who are providing care for them.”

“When I came out this way to St. Paul and started doing my clinicals here, I had some instructors who were part Indigenous and Metis. It’s nice to have that representation among students and instructors.” 

After she completes her Bachelor of Nursing (BN) program this December, Large says she hopes to do community health nursing in a First Nations community. She says, “I want to give back to my communities and where I come from.” 

She says the BN program at UCalgary has benefitted her in many ways. “I’ve gained more critical thinking skills but also I feel like I found my voice. Public speaking is something I’ve always wanted to do, especially because we don’t have as much Indigenous representation as nurses.

“I am an LPN and I have a diploma but being in the UCalgary BN program amplified my knowledge and skills.”