Member Profiles
Stephanie Lelond RN MN(c)
Stephanie is a graduate nursing student at the University of Manitoba and is presently working as a Clinical Nurse Specialist at CancerCareManitoba. At CancerCare she is involved in a research project aimed at evaluating the impact of early palliative care in the advanced pancreatic cancer population.
With a lifelong interest in palliative care and research, Stephanie has been involved in many projects including the areas of perinatal palliative care, dignity conserving care, communication technology in palliative care, the quality of palliative care for children with cancer, and also in peer mentorship. She serves on a number of committees both within the College of Nursing and in clinical nursing practice. Stephanie has been involved in advocating for the role of the advanced practice nurse through conferences and committees. She also promotes excellence in nursing through her position as an executive member of Sigma Theta Tau, Xi Lambda. Thank you Stephanie for showing what emerging leadership looks like!
Dr. Lorraine Avery, RN, PhD, CNCC (C)
Lorraine is a CNS with the WRHA Cardiac Sciences Program, a position she has held for the past 21 years. Lorraine takes a leadership role in the transformation of cardiac care within the province. Lorraine co-chairs the MB Acute Coronary Syndrome Network. This network is dedicated to improving the outcomes of patients with acute coronary syndromes. The Network’s development of standards and the monitoring and reporting of key metrics have facilitated improvements in cardiac care in Winnipeg and rural communities. In 2019, the MB ACS Network team was a recipient of the Shared Health, Health Innovation Award for patient centered care.
Lorraine is passionate about the CNS role and her contributions have been profiled both locally and nationally. Lorraine’s vision is to develop processes that support the evaluation of the CNS contributions in improving and transforming care. Lorraine is proud to be a CNS and to be part of an innovative and dedicated cardiac team. Thank you Lorraine!!!
Ogechi Asagwara
Ogechi found her professional passion for palliative care, during her time working in Acute Adult Medicine at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Center. This work spurred her to pursue employment within the WRHA Palliative Care Program, where she first worked as a community visiting nurse; seeing and supporting patients in their homes, and now as a Clinical Nurse Specialist after completing her Master’s Degree in Nursing (2015).
Ogechi has also worked as a Clinical Team Member for Canadian Virtual Hospice (an online resource). Where as a member of their interdisciplinary team, she helped address and support the unique needs of this patient group online by answering questions, providing information, developing resources, and providing online support.
Ogechi strives to support those living with life-limiting illness, along with their families and the health care team members that provide care to them.
Ogechi Asagwara is coming up on 11 years in her professional nursing practice. Cheers to Ogechi, in this month’s CNS-MB Membership Profile!
Lisa Streeter RN MN
Lisa is the CNS lead for the Palliative Care Consult Team located at the HSC she models behavior and provides both formal and informal education for staff and students alike and has a very active role with medical residents/medical students during their rotation with the PCP. Within this role she models how a Clinical Nurse Specialist can help foster and maintain change in a complex health system with some of the most complex end of life patient scenarios.
In addition to her role as co-chair of the WRHA PCP Nursing Practice Council she has been actively involved with the education and roll out of a Guideline for Discharge Planning for First Nations Patients Returning to Home Community for Palliative Care helping to return end of life care to indigenous communities.
Christine Finnbogason RN BSc MN
Christine is the clinical nurse specialist in the Women’s Health Program at Health Sciences Centre. With her CNS colleague Kira Friesen, she supports all areas of the Women’s Hospital that include the: outpatient clinic, labour & delivery unit, mother baby unit and the antepartum/gynecology/gynecology unit. Christine has always had a passion for laboring families and their newborns as that is where her career started many years ago. However, since that time she has discovered enjoyment in being part of a team that works to improve healthcare for women at all stages of life. One of the biggest challenges that Christine has faced in her role as a CNS is the steep learning curve that comes with learning a new clinical area. This is where the literature, front line staff and her amazing co-workers have assisted her in overcoming this challenge. Currently Christine is the clinical lead in the EPR working group planning the implementation of the electronic patient record at Women’s Hospital. Whether it is for a complex medical patient that need additional planning and support or a family looking for a “healing birth Christine enjoys families and the medical team to improve care to our patient population.
Andrea Toews RN MN(C)
Andrea is a Registered Nurse in the Master in Nursing Graduate Program at the University of Manitoba. She is passionate about emergency and critical care nursing. Her career aspirations are to support acute healthcare workers in challenging times and to enhance quality patient care. This pursuit has lead her to pursue research in clinical debriefing post-resuscitation. See our blog for more information about Andrea's research and the link for a paper about this topic.