We are Women’s offers the WCH community a chance to get to know each other and share our stories.
Name: Queenie Cuyugan
Title & Department: Registered Practical Nurse – AACU/CCAC/Covid Programs
On the WCH team for: 4 years
1. What does your typical work day look like?
A typical day has the potential to be momentous, exhilarating, exhausting, energizing, or all of the above. On any given day, I can see patients at their weakest and most vulnerable, or at their strongest and most resolute.
Currently, I’m assigned to work in CCAC. I started my day with a quick huddle with the team then making sure all our supplies and rooms are ready. Mostly my responsibility composes of physical assessments, blood work, ECG test, IV infusion and vital signs monitoring. We have an excellent team wherein no matter how busy it gets, we are resilient and focused on the well-being and delivery of care to our patients.
2. What excites you the most about working at WCH?
One thing I am grateful and proud of is to be a part of this organization wherein I call it “work-home”- working in a place where you feel like home because of such great working culture among all the staff. Who wouldn’t be so thrilled to come to work wherein you encounter people every day with positive energy and friendliness, furthermore everyone feels like a family to one another?
I started working in Womens College Hospital as an EVS partner while pursuing my career in nursing. I am blessed to have supportive colleagues, managers, supervisors and directors all through the way who have inspired me and encouraged me to pursue my nursing career and that I believe is a true testimony of how this organization upholds its Values.
3. How does your work contribute to creating a positive patient experience?
I started in COVID resource team on 2021; I have worked in the different Covid programs namely:
- Assessment Center: My work to perform Covid tests for different ages is challenging, especially with children; but the team was trained to create a testing environment that is centered on pediatrics’ positive wellbeing before, during and after the covid test.
- Vaccination Clinics: This program is a mixture of people that are ecstatic and apprehensive of the of vaccine. My role in this aspect as a nurse is to make sure that there is a real community feel. Everyone feels reassured and cared throughout the whole process of the vaccination.
- Covid Clinical Assessment Center: Immunocompromised patients are one of the most vulnerable populations in this time of pandemic. These people are making decisions under a blanket of fear. Creating a therapeutic nurse-patient relationship gives these patients a positive effect on their health and well-being.
Tell us one (or three) thing(s) that your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you?
I love art. I am hoping to develop my skills in drawing, painting and photography.
Name: Olga Bycok
Title & Department: Registered Nurse – Family Practice Health Centre
On the WCH team for: 40 years
1981 to 1984 – started in the Finance Department doing payroll while attending York University part-time studying accounting. Spent a lot of time reflecting and deciding to apply to nursing school and the rest was history.
1984 to 1986 – Worked part time as the intake secretary in the Emergency Department while
attending nursing school at Centennial College.
1987 to 1989 – Worked on 8 east as RN which at the time was a cardiac step down telemetry and dermatology unit.
1989 to 2014 – worked in the Emergency Department following the evolution of the department to Urgent Care Centre to AACU.
2014 to present – Family Practice Health Center
1. What does your typical work day look like?
There really isn’t a typical day, our patients are on the continuum of life spectrum from prenatal, newborns, infants, children, teens and adults to end of life. Once after logging in – I check email, physician patient schedule, and patient messages then begin setting my daily priorities. If my day is not too busy, I send messages to my colleagues and offer my help. I do preventive health checks with patients which includes present health concerns, review medications with patients, their lifestyle habits, and administer immunizations as needed.
Besides in-person visits, part of the day is spent returning patients’ calls which requires triaging to determine if patients need to be seen the same day or in-person or virtually. Also provide support assurances, and conservative treatment recommendations.
Best of all teaching the next generation of RNs by mentoring consolidation student nurses.
2. What excites you the most about working at WCH?
The evolution of the hospital moving forward over the years I have worked at WCH – recognizing the importance of inclusivity and innovation in healthcare for women, Indigenous communities, LGBTQ2+ and marginalized populations.
3. How does your work contribute to creating a positive patient experience?
I create a positive patient experience by active listening and acknowledging their feelings and wishes when collaborating with them to come up with a plan of care.
4. Tell us one (or three) thing(s) that your colleagues would be surprised to learn about you?
This summer I have a date with a stand up paddle board which I will master and that one day a week
I go for a 10 K walk which I explore different parks and communities in this wonderful city and home
I call Toronto.