For this Nunavut student, nursing is its own reward

Mavis Ell has won the $5,000 Laura Ulluriaq Gauthier scholarship for “exceptional academic achievements and selfless contributions to her community.” (PHOTO COURTESY OF MAVIS ELL)

For Nunavut nursing student Mavis Ell, 21, to become a nurse is a reward in itself.

“There’s not one thing I like about it. I just enjoy everything and helping others,” Ell said from her home in Coral Harbour Sept. 7.

Her time spent learning nursing skills at Nunavut Arctic College and the Qikiqtani General Hospital has been even more rewarding, because she can converse with patients in Inuktitut.

“When they can feel comfortable and happy speaking to me in Inuktitut, that makes me happy.”

Now the third-year Nunavut Arctic College student will receive a $5,000 scholarship to help with her studies.

The Qulliq Energy Corp. announced Sept. 6 that Ell is the 2015 winner of the Laura Ulluriaq Gauthier Scholarship.

Ell won the award for her “exceptional academic achievements and selfless contributions to her community,” a news release from the energy company said.

And Ell plans to take her nursing and language skills back to her home community after she graduates in 2018.

“The people back home are encouraging me to finish, and I want to go back home when I finish school. I just want to stay close to home.”

That’s encouraging news to many Inuit, especially those who are unilingual in Inuktitut, and who have complained of inferior health care services because of language barriers between patients and health care providers.

And that must be welcome news to the Government of Nunavut too, which has long struggled to attract, train and retain nurses, especially Inuit nurses.

“I’ve had a few people tell me they’re excited there will be more Inuk nurses,” Ell said.

And what does Ell plan on doing with the $5,000 scholarship?

“I think I’m going to try and look for a used vehicle to use in Iqaluit,” she said.

As part of her third year in the nursing program, Ell said she will also travel to Halifax in May 2017 for a two-month-long hospital practicum.

“I’m going to be very nervous. And it’s during the spring—that’s when I do a lot of camping and stuff out on the land. But I’ll also be very excited to learn and to experience going down south.”

Winnipeg is the only city outside of Nunavut which Ell said she’s visited so far.

The Laura Ulluriaq Gauthier award is named in honour of Laura Gauthier, a highly respected Nunavut civil servant and QEC executive who worked on the creation of the Qulliq Energy Corp., but died suddenly in 2002.