1987. Peel Memorial Hospital in Brampton, Ontario. A young Sharon Lawlor is working as a float nurse, migrating from one unit to the next, depending on the constantly shifting patient loads. Some-times, her instructions are delivered in the form of tiny electronic buzzes on the pager she carries. Other times, she gets her assignments directly from the nurse in charge of the float pool. The one constant about the job is unpredictability. Any given shift can mean being called to the emergency room, geriatrics, paediatrics, the cardiac ward, the operating room… the list goes on.
One day, Sharon’s manager asked if she’d report to the psychiatric ward. On that particular day, none of the other float nurses would make the trek to the bowels of the hospital where the psychiatric ward was located.
Lawlor agrees. Once she arrives in the ward, she has an epiphany. “I was really surprised that people were scared to go,” she says. “I just realized that this was new learning. That the patients were still as sick as the patients on the other units. I realized that this was an-other type of nursing that I found was very interesting.”
Twenty-eight years later, Lawlor is on stage at the Toronto Hyatt Regency Hotel, accepting the award for ‘Nurse of the Year’ as part of the Toronto Star’s annual Nightingale Awards. The honour is in recognition of her exemplary work as a mental health nurse on the Toronto Police Service’s Mobile Crisis Intervention Team (MCIT). As a member of the MCIT for the past eight years, Lawlor’s typical work day has included donning a bullet proof vest and accompanying specially trained police officers in a cruiser as they respond to 911 calls involving individuals experiencing mental health crises.
A Serious Childhood Illness Results in a Passion for Nursing
Lawlor might have chosen another profession altogether if it hadn’t been for a serious bout of appendicitis at the age of 13. “I was very sick,” she says. Her appendix had ruptured and she was put in isolation on an adult ward to recover. “The nurses were very impressive and very caring and very empathetic. They even tried to lift my spirits and socialize with me, versus just giving me ‘care’. That interpersonal part was what really made me feel so connected to them.”
It was that stay in the hospital and the powerful impression left upon her by her nurses that inspired her to pursue a career in nursing.
The RPN Years
After graduating from the Toronto Regional School for Nursing Assistants in 1984, Lawlor worked as an RPN for the next 20 years in a variety of settings. To this day, she makes a point of maintain-ing her dual registration as both an RN and RPN. “I have always been proud of it,” she says, reflecting on her RPN designation. “It’s been a big part of my career and it’s gotten me where I am today. It’s a respected profession and I’m proud of it. I think that people have validated the fact that RPNs have got the ability to do a lot more than they did years ago. And I may go back to it. There may be a job that has that requires an RPN designation and I would be able to just apply for it.”
When asked about how the role of the RPN has changed over the years, Lawlor says, “Back in my day, we were able to spend more time doing hands-on patient care. I really liked that. And unfortunate-ly, I think we’ve come away from that.”
She relates a story about working as an RPN while going through her RN course in 2004. “I had an RN as my preceptor. I was at the hospital and I sat by this 50-year-old man’s bedside who was dying of cancer. He was palliative and his family was standing all around his room looking at him as he was dying. I said to the family, ‘Why don’t you get a coffee and I’ll sit with him.’ I sat with him and we had this conversation about how he felt very badly that his family was going to be left alone. I remember my preceptor came into the room and asked to speak with me out in the hall. She said that we don’t have time for ‘chitter chatter’ with patients. She said that if I had extra time I should be mak-ing some beds. I stopped her and said, ‘You don’t realize it, but this is actually nursing care. Just to be talking to some-one who is dying and spending that extra time by his bedside is more impor-tant than making a bed right now.’
Becoming an Interventionist
Her introduction to the MCIT happened purely by coincidence. While attending a conference, she picked up a DVD called, “The Interventionists: Chronicles of a Mental Health Crisis Team”. After watching it, she said, “That’s what I want to do. I applied to St. Joseph’s Health Centre eight years ago and got hired on their team. Then, when Toronto East General Hospital started their team three years ago, I came over here full time.”
When she’s asked what she finds most fulfilling about her job, Lawlor says, It’s a privilege to go into someone’s home or environment when they’re in extreme crisis and having them trust you enough to work with you in that moment.”
One of the police officers Lawlor works with is Constable Brian Urqhart, who describes her as, “…extremely dedicated to helping clients and their families during and after a crisis. Her compassion and extraordinary sensitiv-ity to people suffering from a mental disorder is amazing and working with her has taught me many skills that I used every day in my policing career.”
Lawlor’s manager, Karin Doan, the Manager for Mental Health at Toronto East General Hospital, says, “Sharon is incredibly compassionate to the patients she works with. She said she always considers if this individual were her fam-ily member, how would she want them to be treated and what kind of service would she want for them? That really reflects in the quality of the care she provides. There’s a lot of stigma in mental health and Sharon, in her own way, is combatting that. She’s approaching them and treating them like her own family member to provide care for them.”
Lawlor says she also appreciates the chance to be the ‘eyes and ears’ for the doctor and to be supportive to the family and friends. She likes the idea of getting the person to the hospital with dignity. “People often calm down when they hear you’re a nurse and it’s not because they know me personally,” she says. “It’s because of all the other nurses before me who led the way and treated this person in the past.”
Reflecting on her award, Lawlor says, “It’s overwhelming and just very humbling. It’s a great honour. There were many wonderful nurses nomi-nated and they were all worthy of the award. I also want to recognize the police officers that I work with, who go side-by-side into these calls and provide empathy and support. And all the nurses on these teams. We also work strongly with EMS. We couldn’t do our jobs without them.”
