P.E.I. nurse honoured for her work in Arctic, 40-year career

A nurse with 40 years on the job, the last 13 of them in the Arctic, is back in P.E.I. after what she calls a great adventure.

Florence Wood has moved back to the Island to retire, but she did stop by Ottawa as well, to pick up a major award.

Wood received the National Excellence in Nursing Award last week from Health Canada, recognizing tremendous commitment and dedication by nurses working in First Nations or Inuit communities.

"It was very exciting, I was totally honoured to receive the award, and it's an experience I'll never, ever forget," Wood told CBC's Sara Fraser on Compass.

Wood moved to the north Baffin community of Pond Inlet with lots of nursing experience around Atlantic Canada.

At first she just planned to stay in Nunavut for a couple of years, but she developed an affinity for the area that still hasn't waned.

"I loved it the whole time I was there," she said. "It's a challenging job, but it's very rewarding, you're very valued, and just the recreation alone, it's an opportunity you'll never have anywhere else."

Wood said being an outdoors person helps.

When she first arrived, her office had no larger vehicle, so transportation was a snow mobile in the winter, and anATV in the summer.

That was far from the only issue for nurses there.

No doctors, therapists, specialists

"First, the communities don't have a physician so you are the physician," Wood explained. "You're also the physiotherapist, you're the mental health team. We do a lot of networking with each other, and problem solving."

Any skill you had was put to use as she soon discovered, and over the years she delivered many of the babies in the area, "being the most experienced with labour and delivery, I was the go-to person for that."

The mainproblem in the Northis Type 2 diabetes, said Wood, followed by hypertension, mental health issues, and suicide.

"It can be very overwhelming, but you have to stay grounded, and you call on your common sense a lot," she said. "Alot of it is back to the basics, and think of common sense."

Wood admitted she's still itching for a little more Northern adventure, and may go back as a relief nurse, but will wait for a few months to settle down on the Island.

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