Tim Collins/B次元官网网址 staff

Sidney native, Dr. Anita Molzahn, has been chosen to receive the Order of Canada for her work in the nursing profession.

Molzahn began her career in Victoria where she graduated in 1974 to become an registered nurse. By 1989 she had earned a doctorate, not in nursing, but in sociology since, at the time, there were no PhD programs for nursing.

It was her clinical work in dialysis and transplantation at the University of Alberta that led her to develop an interest in studying the quality of life of those patients. She worked to develop measurement tools to compare quality of life across different cultures utilizing multicultural and multi-lingual surveys. In this way it was possible to determine how the methods and practices in Canada stacked up against 21 other countries around the world.

In that work Molzahn worked as part of a team working with the World Health Organization.

B次元官网网址淲e were pleasantly surprised to find that Canada ranked first in that comparative study. It helped us to begin to define what was working and where improvements still needed to be made,B次元官网网址� she explained.

The problem, said Molzahn, was that, in the past, the effectiveness of medical practices were measured primarily by mortality and morbidity numbers (how many people died or became ill). Those numbers did not measure the quality of peoples lives in those final days before the end of life.

B次元官网网址淚t allowed us to to look at new treatments and discard treatments that werenB次元官网网址檛 making any difference. If youB次元官网网址檙e doing something that doesnB次元官网网址檛make a difference, why do it?B次元官网网址� she said.

Having stepped down as Dean of Nursing at the University of Alberta, Molzahn has now begun a yearB次元官网网址檚 sabbatical at her home in Sidney.

But being on sabbatical doesnB次元官网网址檛 mean Molzahn will be idle. She has joined a group of colleagues at the University of Victoria and is engaged in studying the stories of people approaching the end of life.

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e now transcending the numbers, surveys and statistics and getting into the real, human stories of these remarkable people. We talk about their challenges, their joys and what they can teach us about whatB次元官网网址檚 important at the end of life.B次元官网网址�

Molzahn was notified on June 30 of her Order of Canada honour, but hasnB次元官网网址檛 physically been awarded the medal as yet. Apparently there are a number of ceremonies throughout the year and itB次元官网网址檚 a matter of finding the best fit to be present for the award.

For now, she is enjoying her seaside home and is happy to be home, at least for a while.