Annie Lau calls herself a true testament to lifelong learning. Indeed, more than 20 years after graduating with her BScN from UBC, she returned to the School of
\nNursing on a quest for more knowledge. With her BScN, Annie worked in a variety of nursing roles, from oncology and acute care, to public health.<\/p>\n
While she was accepted to the Masters program in 1990, the timing wasn\u2019t right to pursue another degree. \u201cLife is about all the planets being lined up,\u201d she says of the balance between her personal and professional lives. \u201cThe bachelor really equipped me for a long journey of practice.\u201d Annie excelled as a public health nurse, receiving recognition in 2011 for her clinical competence with the CRNBC Award of Excellence in Nursing Practice. And it was through her work with families on the Downtown East Side and in the Strathcona area she found her passion and inspiration to return to UBC for her MSN.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started the program in 2010 and walked across the stage in the spring of 2014.\u201d Her husband and two teenage daughters attended her convocation. The MSN required her to write a thesis, something she was not initially comfortable about. \u201cI am glad that I didn\u2019t have a choice,\u201d she says of presenting her findings. \u201cI would have never gone down that path on my own initiative.\u201d Her mentor and supervisor, Dr. Wendy Hall, helped her to focus in on an area of particular clinical and personal interest: Parents\u2019 experience with infant sleep safety and SIDS. \u201cIt was exciting because, as practitioners, we all know parents. But in using a research lens to look at the issues, we can validate what we\u2019ve seen in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annie\u2019s perspective after a two-decade break is unique. Reflecting, she says, \u201cI felt a sense of completion of what I set out to do in 1990. In retrospect, there is a greater purpose of completing it in 2014 than in 1990 because my research focus and career path would have been very different. What I achieved in my research study and clinical practice now hold much more meaning for my clinical, professional, and personal life.\u201d And the time away from school also allowed her to see how the School of Nursing has changed over the years. \u201cI was so impressed to see the growth of the program and the caliber of expertise,\u201d she says. Her studies also confirmed her passion for public health and the need for advocacy in this area. \u201cI came out of the experience really charged,\u201d she says. \u201cNew opportunities in education get me going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Master of Science in Nursing Graduate Annie Lau calls herself a true testament to lifelong learning. Indeed, more than 20 years after graduating with her BScN from UBC, she returned to the School of Nursing on a quest for more knowledge. With her BScN, Annie worked in a variety of nursing roles, from oncology and acute care, to public health. While she was accepted to the Masters program in 1990, the timing wasn\u2019t right to pursue another degree. \u201cLife is about all the planets being lined up,\u201d she says of…read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91297,"featured_media":1604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2016-spring-summer","et-bg-layout-dark","et-white-bg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1605,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1603\/revisions\/1605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/touchpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}