Strange and beautiful: A nurse’s journey to build connections and healing through mental health care
To Shawn Smith, it isn’t administering medications, changing dressings, or updating charts that make the biggest impact on care. It’s the connections built between patient and provider. Shawn has focused on mental health care for most of her career, and leads with building a human and emotional connection with her patients. It’s the not-so-secret ingredient to truly understanding what a patient needs to begin healing.
“I remember laughing with some clients and crying with some clients,” she says. “It humbles me, their ability and openness to let me share in their journey. It’s hard to be vulnerable.”
With that connection also comes heartbreak. Clients don’t always make it, sometimes dying from an unrelated physical illness, or dying by suicide. “It’s saddening. Especially when you see the beauty in people and you see the potential. And they choose a different way that’s best for them. That is really hard to experience.”
Shawn’s impact on patients and their families is powerful. She often receives notes sharing success stories since receiving care and expressing gratitude. Family members have told her that they notice a change in their loved one; that they have a will to live now.
“It’s really been quite rewarding to have that impact for them and their families,” she says. “The best part of being a nurse is the connection you build with people. Gaining an understanding of who they are. Being able to support them and provide care to help them recover in a way that you’re caring for their whole self. And to really discover what is out there for them.”
To Shawn, that type of personal care also means bringing herself and emotions to each interaction. She approaches every patient with a willingness to know them and understand their unique situations to provide the best care – whether that means asking questions, discussing something unrelated like their favourite artwork or food, or even just sitting in silence.
“Nursing is just different. It’s a strange and beautiful profession,” she says. “What really guided me to mental health nursing was that ability to use your whole self. In mental health care, we express and focus on that therapeutic relationship. Within that, you bring your knowledge, skills, passion… you bring everything that you can – caring and love.”
“Helping people get through the hard moments on an intimate, shared level. That’s it – just letting people know that you are there with them. You see them. You hear them. You get them.”
“It seems to go on forever”: Facing unconscious biases and racism
Shawn immigrated from Guyana to Welland, Ontario as a young child. While her family found friends among a group of other mostly non-white families she refers to as a “world diaspora,” she experienced racism from a young age.
Assumptions from patients and family members about her role at the hospital have followed her throughout her career. Many assume she is the housekeeper or healthcare aide. In fact, Shawn is a registered nurse with more than 7 years of schooling who prioritizes continuous education, having taken advanced nursing courses, receiving an Advanced Clinical Nursing Fellowship from the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario for implementing a person- and family-centred care best practice guideline.
“I have been told patients don’t want me as their nurse because I’m Black. I’ve been called overt racial names and slurs,” she says. “I’ve had very ill patients screaming the ‘N word’ down the hallway at me. It seems to go on forever, but it’s probably just a few minutes. That is really hurtful and aggravating.”
She credits her colleagues for supporting her in these difficult situations and herself for setting boundaries and practicing self-compassion allowing her to continue providing the best care even under challenging circumstances.
“It’s difficult knowing I have to go into a room and endure racial slurs or particular looks,” she says. “I have to show that person that they can get good care from a Black person. I know that I am able to provide the care they need. I have the knowledge and skillset.”
Words of wisdom for aspiring Black nurses
Shawn is passionate about providing compassionate care to the community. When she first began working in 2003, she notes there were fewer Black nurses than there are now. Her advice to others looking to follow in her shoes?
“Jump all in. Nursing is a healing profession. It’s a caring profession. It’s academic,” she says. “You can niche out exactly who you want to be as a nurse these days. I am proud to be nursing in this capacity.”
“It’s really that sense of human connectedness and ability to share in somebody’s experience that’s so intimate. It’s so fulfilling.”