Nurse of the Year Jennifer Keeler wants to make victims of sexual assault and domestic violence ‘survivors from the second they see me.’
By
Fri., May 6, 2016
When the door of Chantel’s Place clicks shut, the sounds of the Mississauga Hospital’s hallway outside fade away. The overhead paging system is silenced; stretchers and cleaning carts rattling by on the obstetrics ward are muffled.
Inside, a dreamcatcher dangles from the window next to the exam chair, and tropical fish dart around an aquarium. Two large armchairs sit in front of a large picture window, beckoning guests to sit and find comfort in the spring sunshine spilling through a stained-glass mural, casting a pool of soft peach light on the floor. It’s an oasis for sexual assault and domestic violence survivors who are in the midst of one of their darkest moments.
Nurse practitioner Jennifer Keeler is the co-ordinator of Chantel’s Place, one of 35 centres in Ontario that specialize in caring for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Whether patients come in escorted by police, seeking a quiet place to tell their stories after being in the emergency room to have bones X-rayed or wounds sutured, or after being referred from a local community health centre, Keeler’s goal is to comfort and empower her patients. “I want to try and make them survivors from the second they see me,” she says.
Registered nurse Connie Stevens says Keeler’s immense compassion and devotion to her work makes her a deserving recipient of this year’s Toronto Star Nightingale Award, presented annually during Nursing Week. The winner and honourable mentions are selected by a panel of representatives from nursing associations and the Toronto Star.
“She gives people back a face and really helps to empower them,” Stevens says.
The sanctuary inside Chantel’s Place is a far cry from its beginnings in the early 1990s, when Keeler was part of a team of on-call nurses and doctors in the emergency room. Keeler says her feminism and concern for women’s issues drew her to the team, started by a nurse and a Peel Regional Police officer in memory of Chantel Paquette, whose boyfriend murdered her.
“Everybody asks, ‘How can you do this?’ I think: How can you not?” Keeler says. “The majority of the world has to stand on the sidelines, and I get to address (sexual assault) and actually do something, which I think is important.”
In 2002, Keeler became the co-ordinator of the clinic. By then, she was working on her forensic nursing certificate — a perfect fit for a nurse who got into the profession after a part-time job in a veterinary clinic in high school got her excited about science. Leia matéria completa
