About
Alberta Primary Care Nurses Association is a provincial association of nurses who network and provide mentorship, tools, resources and educational opportunities to foster professional development, leadership, and excellence in primary care.
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Land Acknowledgement:
We acknowledge we practice on the territories of Treaty 6, Treaty 7 and Treaty 8; the 8 Métis Settlements and the Métis Nation of Alberta.
We also recognize the Indigenous Peoples who dwell in urban centres across this land. These territories are the home for many Indigenous Peoples, including the Anishinabe, Blackfoot, Cree, Dene, Inuit, Métis, Stoney Nakoda Sioux, and the Tsuut’ina.
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We respect the Treaties that were made on these territories, we acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to moving forward in partnership with Indigenous Peoples in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.
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Proud Partners:
Our Team
President
Melissa Waddell, RN BScN
Melissa is an RN since 2012 residing and working mostly in Edmonton, Alberta. Nursing in Primary Care Practice became a passion of hers after switching from Emergency Medicine in 2018. Since entering a leadership role in 2019 her goal has been to enhance education and awareness of all the wonderful work Primary Care Nurses do within Family Practice. She serves as the Primary Care Nursing contact and representative for Alberta on the Primary Care Alliance, Canadian Family Practice Nursing Association, and the Women's Health Coalition. She's honored to lead the APCNA to contribute to enhancing this specialty in nursing and provide it the recognition it deserves.
President-Elect
VACANT- Apply today at apcna.executive@gmail.com
Treasurer
Kate Tindall, LPN
Kate graduated from the Licensed Practical Nurse program at Northern Lakes College in 2011. She has worked in various healthcare settings initially focusing on maternity care and woman’s health. Her transition to primary care occurred 6 years ago and enhanced her nursing experience to include team-based management of complex patients, prenatal and newborn care, and health education and promotion. In 2020, Kate joined the Grande Prairie Primary Care Network’s practice transformation team. As manager of the team and associated program, Kate provides leadership to transformation staff and a group of primary care nurses working in their own family practice settings. Kate is energized by the opportunity to be a part of an up-and-coming specialty of nursing which is family practice nursing and to be able to give nurses an opportunity to provide collaborative team-based that supports better health outcomes for patients. She is a passionate advocate for the patient’s medical home model (PMH) of care and maximizing the role of nurses in advancing the implementation of the PMH.
Education Chair
Alena Thompson, RN, BScN
Alena graduated from the MacEwan diploma program in 2001, then was able to complete her BScN through U of A in 2009. She began her career at Bonnyville Health Centre in rural nursing. Her focus quickly became obstetrics. Alena was also able to instruct for MacEwan’s rural delivery nursing program for 2 semesters. Once the Bonnyville Primary Care Network established in 2006, she developed and ran the OB Clinic prenatal care program for over 7 years. She also helped develop and perform the role of Patient Educator. From there, Alena went back to Bonnyville Health Centre in roles including Clinical Safety Coordinator, Clinical Educator and Clinical Care Coordinator in acute care. This gave her more experience and skills in program development, staff education and leadership. Back to her passion, Alena returned to the Bonnyville PCN to develop the Bonnyville Child & Adolescent Mental Health Clinic alongside a community board, then settled back into primary care nursing. She is currently the Clinic Lead and working with her team to develop and grow the Family Practice Nurse role for her community. Email: alena@bonnyvillepcn.ca
Secretary
Kolbi Ayers, RN BScN
Kolbi graduated from the Bachelor of Nursing program at Mount Royal University in 2018. Immediately after graduating, she began her career in primary care. First, working in her hometown of Brooks,AB with the Palliser Primary Care Network as a Registered Nurse and Behavioural Health Consultant, and now currently with the Calgary West Central Primary Care Network as a Primary Care Registered Nurse. Kolbi has spent the entirety of her career diving into the world of primary care and is passionate about the role of the primary care nurse. Kolbi has found her career in primary care to be very rewarding and is excited to join the APCNA team to help bring awareness and advocate for the role of the primary care nurse in family practice settings.
South Zone Rep/ Founding Member
Kim Daniels RN, BN
Kim graduated from nursing school at the University of Lethbridge in 2008. Kim had worked in Primary Care throughout her schooling and after graduation, took a position at the Campbell Clinic in Coaldale, where she spent the next 11 years offering Primary Care Nursing expertise and working alongside a multidisciplinary team to the full scope of practice. Kim moved into the position of Clinical Care Coordinator within the clinic adding Quality Improvement and process and policy management to the long list of skills and duties within the clinic.
In 2019, Kim moved to her current position as Clinical and Quality Improvement Lead with the Chinook Primary Care Network Central Support Office. This role allows Kim to put the Primary Care clinic voice front and center when it comes to process and policy-making strategies across the province and within the community.
North Zone Rep
Kristin Simard, RN
Kristin has extensive frontline nursing experience in critical care, emergency, corrections health, international work and wartime Afghanistan, as well as rural and remote areas of practice including our North Zone of Alberta and remote Inuit communities in Nunavut. She has broad nursing educator, consulting and leadership experience in clinical, virtual and simulation realms. She has led the design, implementation and evaluation of large scale programs and authored multiple publications.
Kristin is now one of the two Professional Practice Leads for the NZ and will be working to support the standardization of Primary Care Nursing scope, roles and education across the 10 PCNs.
Member At Large
Manpreet Kaur Khaira, RN
Manpreet graduated from Mount Royal University in 2011 and began her career in acute care in hematology and intensive care. In 2015 joined one the largest PCNs in Calgary – Mosaic Primary Care Network. Here she spent the first few years providing chronic disease management working alongside a great multidisciplinary team. She later became a case manager in the Mosaic Pain Management Program which integrated her practice and knowledge of acute care into chronic care. She developed a passion for QI initiatives and during the COVID pandemic, had the opportunity to lead her team with COVID support calls. Currently, she is currently a part of the ATIN team (Attachment, Transition, Integration, and Navigation). This team has a focus on supporting patient attachment from hospital to primary care, discharge planning, and care coordination where she continues her passion in education and QI work. Manpreet is extremely excited and grateful to be joining the APCNA team whilst working towards providing voice and recognition to Primary Care Nursing.
Founding Member
Abbie Skrove RN
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Founding Member
Chantal Rennie RN
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