The University of Toronto is set to welcome its first students to the new Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH) in September.
Lakshmi Asokan is in the inaugural class of the nurse practitioner program and says she chose to be a nurse to help people through the most difficult times in their lives.
“Growing up, I saw how overwhelming the health-care system can be for families,” Lakshmi said.
Lakshmi says her parents, who are immigrants from Sri Lanka, went through a challenging time when her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer.
“There was definitely some financial challenges and some language barriers there that made it more difficult for them to access the appropriate care they needed for my grandma,” Lakshmi said.
That experience led Lakshmi and her three sisters to pursue careers in the medical field.
“We had very little support at the time, so I wanted to help other families similar to mine,” she said.
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Lakshmi completed her accelerated nursing undergraduate at the university.
She then worked as a registered nurse at North York General Hospital in pediatrics and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for three years.
Now, she’s taking on her next challenge at SAMIH, as she works to become a nurse practitioner.
“It means a lot to be able to join a program here in Scarborough, especially because this is where I grew up,” Lakshmi said.
“I’m hoping to grow clinically and also to learn more about the community and about health equity and about the barriers that people face, specifically here in Scarborough.”
Thirty students with ties to Scarborough will take part in the two-year program.
“Ontario needs more nurse practitioners who can provide primary health care and help people access the care that they need, so that’s really why we wanted to expand our nurse practitioner program here to the Scarborough and eastern GTA,” said Robyn Stremler, dean of the U of T’s Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.
To gain hands-on experience, each student will do a placement in the community.
Some will put their skills to the test at the new nurse practitioner-led clinic on the Scarborough campus.
“We know that people who receive their health-care training in a particular area tend to stay in that area and practice in the future, so we really are building capacity through the program,” Stremler said.
Lakshmi hopes to one day open her own clinic in Scarborough.
For now, she’s focused on getting ready for her first day of class on Sept. 15.
“There’s something very special about being able to give back to the community that has shaped my journey in such a big way,” Lakshmi said.
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