Seventh Annual GSNA Symposium
Local Engagement for Global Health Change
The UBC Graduate Students in Nursing Association (GSNA) held its seventh Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium “Local Engagement for Global Health Change.” Hosted in the beautiful Great Hall of the AMS Nest, the event was kicked off by Dr Elizabeth Saewyc with an exciting launch of the Nursing Now BC campaign. This was followed by a warm Territorial Welcome by Elder Thelma Stogan and her brother. The inspiring morning continued, with the event’s keynote speaker Dr Marilou Gagnon from the University of Victoria, who used her work with harm reduction as a case study for the linkage between local and global health change. We also had the wonderful opportunity to be absolutely blown away by 13 Oral and seven poster presentations facilitated by graduate and senior undergraduate students from a myriad of schools of nursing including UBC, University of Victoria, University of the Fraser Valley, Trinity Western University, Douglas College, and Langara College. While rich conversations and networking were filling up all the ‘in-between’ moments, every member of the audience was engaged in a meaningful afternoon plenary session that featured a panel discussion on “Challenging Assumptions of Global Health Approaches.” Our impressive panel featured UBC School of Nursing’s own MSN student Dawn Tisdale, Dr Prince Adu from the UBC School of Population and Public Health, Gwyneth McIntosh, a nurse practitioner working with the RICHER team in the Vancouver community, and the session’s moderator Paisly Symenuk who is a UBC MSN/MPH student. We were honoured to have Elder Roberta Price share her unique ceremonial closing to the day that left everyone inspired and with a breath of fresh air!
We are so thrilled to have had such a successful event and we are beyond thankful to the UBC School of Nursing, the volunteers who dedicated their time to help out during the event, our sponsors, student presenters, and guests for participating and making all the moments of the day special in every way! On behalf of the GSNA I would like to extend our warmest thanks and we look forward to engaging with you all once again at next year’s symposium!
Submitted by Raluca Radu, MSN student and President, Graduate Student Nurses Association
