A tale of three nursing careers during Nursing Week
May 11, 2026
One of the great advantages of nursing is the breadth of career paths available. During National Nursing Week, we’re honoring the myriad ways that nurses can transform health.
This week, we will celebrate the University of Victoria School of Nursing’s 50th anniversary. At this critical time in healthcare, meet three UVic Nursing alumni determined to have a lasting impact on the health of people in BC.
Nurse practitioner in Indigenous health
Tarah Reece’s cup is filled by the good work she does in Indigenous heath.
An Indigenous family nurse practitioner based in Victoria, with family roots in the Lil'wat Nation, Reece completed her Nurse Practitioner (NP) master’s program at the University of Victoria in 2020.
“I have strong matriarch leaders in my family, I didn’t know I wanted to work in Indigenous health until I started in my NP program,” she says. “Now that I work exclusively with Indigenous patients, I can’t imagine anything else.”
Reece moved into public health after 11 years as a registered nurse in emergency departments. When she joined the NP program, her twin boys were entering kindergarten, and she wanted better balance in her life.
Her grandmother, Florence Louie, a Kamloops Residential School survivor, spent years working as an Elder at a school district in Mission, BC. Reece saw the difference her grandmother made and decided that she could help provide culturally safe and appropriate healthcare to Indigenous people in BC.
In her clinical role at the Camas Lelum Primary Care Clinic, Reece serves First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples living in urban and rural settings.
For three years, she was the Indigenous provincial lead with the Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of BC (NNPBC), providing support, mentorship and coaching to NPs across the province and supporting the 15 Indigenous-led primary care centres in BC.
“I feel like if I can be a part of helping improve Indigenous health, for my patients, for communities, for the province, it’s such an honour to be part of that."
Reece recently started a new role as clinical lead for nurse practitioners with the First Nations Health Authority. And in the fall, Reece will begin a PhD in Indigenous Governance at UVic. Her boys will be finishing high school when she graduates with a doctorate, a perfect full circle moment.
Palliative and end-of-life care registered nurse
Katie Hennessy walks alongside people in their most vulnerable moments.
A clinical nurse specialist in palliative and end-of-life care with Island Health, Hennessey has spent the past 13 years helping people through the greatest life transition—death.
“I feel really drawn to helping people in challenging and vulnerable situations,” she says. “This allows me to be in that space with them in a caring and compassionate way.”
Before her current role, Hennessy worked in oncology as a registered nurse in various roles in BC Cancer, where she was hired after graduating in 2013 from the University of Victoria’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
“In palliative care and oncology, there’s a lot of uncertainty in both of those worlds,” she says. “Living with that uncertainty is something I am okay with. I feel grateful to be part of that transition in people’s lives.”
Hennessy came to nursing later in life. She studied acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine before becoming a parent and running a family restaurant business in Victoria.
She describes the moment she decided to go back to school to become a registered nurse as an epiphany.
“I woke up one day and thought, ‘I need to be a nurse,’” she says.
With two small children, Hennessy had a lot of late nights but said her partner and large extended family supported her.
In her current role, Hennessy is part of a consult team for complex cases, providing support to clinicians in palliative care and community health teams. She has also started teaching at UVic in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program, supporting clinical education and nursing leadership.
Palliative care isn’t about the last hours of someone’s life. Hennessy says supporting someone on their journey means providing wrap-around services for the person and their family, including symptom management and psychosocial support in the weeks and months leading up to their death, giving patients dignity and autonomy.
“Palliative care is one of the places we get to truly enact person-centered care,” Hennessy says. “Listening to what matters most to someone and being able to support that is truly a privilege.”
Emergency care registered nurse
Alyssa De Medeiros always planned to work in emergency nursing. She never expected to fall in love with research too.
De Medeiros graduates this spring from UVic’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program and has her sights set on a career as an emergency department registered nurse.
During her studies, De Medeiros worked as a student nurse in an emergency department for two years, completed the specialized pathway for emergency medicine, and undertook her final fourth-year practicum in the emergency department.
But an opportunity to become a research assistant for two School of Nursing faculty members, Jae-Yung Kwon and Mariko Sakamato, has expanded her view of nursing.
“Now I see myself having a career where I’m making a difference as a registered nurse and where I’m working to make a difference at a broader system level through research.”
As a research assistant, De Medeiros contributed to a project focused on improving the experiences of older adults and their care partners in the emergency department. Participants interviewed in Victoria and Nanaimo reported that emergency departments were misaligned with the needs of an aging population.
Challenges included physically uncomfortable environments, inadequate communication during triage and discharge, fragmented care coordination, and insufficient attention to cognitive, sensor, emotional and basic needs.
The team identified inexpensive, quick wins that can help make emergency department care better for aging adults.
“I truly believe it’s such an important time to make this change in our system,” De Medeiros says. “We’re at a vulnerable point where unless we start these conversations and mobilize the research, nothing’s going to improve.”
De Medeiros, who was born and raised in Victoria, was drawn to nursing after having loved ones in the hospital. “It was nurses that made the difference,” she says.
She is excited about the possibilities her career offers.
“I’m really happy I had the opportunity at UVic to branch out and explore a different side of nursing.”