Nursing Alumnus Wins Fraser Health ABOVE AND BEYOND Award

Each year, Fraser Health recognizes employees, physicians and volunteers who go above and beyond to improve patient care and services in local communities with their annual Above & Beyond Awards. This year, Fraser Health celebrated 19 incredible individuals and teams making a difference in health care.

Among the winners was Royal Columbian Hospital Nurse Practitioner Brenda Poulton, who serves as an Adjunct Professor in UBC’s School of Nursing. She was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Brenda has made it her mission to ensure patients can be as pain free as possible. She manages the post-operative pain needs of surgical and trauma patients at Royal Columbian Hospital, where she has spent more than 30 years in nursing. She was one of Fraser Health’s pioneering nurse practitioners.

During her career, she has been instrumental in shaping Fraser Health’s approaches to managing acute pain. On a daily basis she manages a large load of complicated patients and follows each of them throughout their surgical journey, serving as an expert resource for families and employees on best practices.

Together with an anesthesiologist, she helped establish a Diagnostic and Interventional Pain Clinic at the hospital. She has also served as the Fraser Health nursing lead for the province’s Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) Colorectal Collaborative. Colleagues praise her as a “true ambassador of the nursing profession” and an “inspirational nurse leader” who is dynamic, energetic, and unwavering in her advocacy for patients. Her dedication to education and mentorship means she is rarely seen without a novice nurse or student by her side. She extends her mentorship by volunteering her time teaching pain management sessions to nurses studying for their Canadian Nurses Association certification.

In addition to her roles within the hospital, she sits on multiple local, provincial, and national committees as a pain expert and has presented at international conferences. She is a founding member of Pain BC, and served as a director for six years. She has also served as a member of the Canadian Pain Society, and led an interdisciplinary team which developed a pain course offered at the University of British Columbia. Brenda is the recipient of a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013, a Canadian Pain Society Nursing Excellence Award in 2014, and a Pain BC Provider Recognition Award in 2015.

Fraser Health’s Above & Beyond Awards were presented on September 21 at a ceremony at Surrey City Hall.

To read more inspiring stories and watch videos on these and other health care heroes in Fraser Health communities, visit: http://news.fraserhealth.ca/News/September-2016/2016-Above-and-Beyond-Award-recipients.aspx.

Contributed by: Elaine O’Connor, Fraser Health