Ever since she was a young child, she’s been in awe of babies and now she gets to take care of them as a neonatal nurse: her dream job. Amanda Latreille is originally from Iqaluit, Nunavut but now lives in Ottawa. She’s been nursing for over 25 years. While she considered becoming a pediatrician, the number of years of schooling held her back. At first she was a pediatric nurse and then she transitioned into neonatal nursing. She works in a level two nursery, working with babies born 30 weeks and older, just a little too early. Typically, they have extra medical needs, can’t eat by mouth fully or maintain temperature yet.

To prepare her for her career as a registered nurse, Latreiile took a three year college program in Peterborough that was very demanding, working in clinical settings from the beginning of her education. She worked in nursing homes and hospitals to apply her classroom lessons and her course load was very heavy. She was in school all day every day.

After she graduated, she worked in Peterborough’s pediatric unit for two years until she decided to work as a travel nurse. She worked in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the University of New Mexico's Children's Hospital and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore but she didn’t enjoy the pace of travel nursing. She decided to return and work at the Children's Hospital in Ottawa, where she lived when she was 11. It felt like home and she stayed there for a couple years until she moved over to the neonatal unit at the General hospital. She worked at the level three nursery which cared for babies that were 22 weeks and up until she transferred to the level two nursery at the Civic hospital two years ago.

Her advice for aspiring Indigenous nurses is, “I think nursing is wonderful because there are so many different things you can do. If there's one area that you know you're not finding joy in, there are so many other options to look into. There's always office type work, there's occupational health, there's public health. If you're not big into hospitals, there's just so many things that you can do with your nursing career.”

She also suggested getting your foot in the door and working anywhere if you can’t get the role you would prefer at first. What she has found is that team dynamics are the most important and suggests trying a different unit if they are challenging. In her experience, speciality departments are willing to provide training. She recommends getting into the hospital and trying out the specialties and units to see what you prefer. Finding a good fit is important when you work 12 hour shifts and regularly encounter stressful situations where you need to rely on your coworkers.

“It's a great way to see your country or the world. That's the beauty of nursing. It just opens up so many doors.”

The advice she gives younger staff is to travel all over Canada and see how things are done. “You never know, you might find a new home… go and explore and have fun,” she urges. Travelling can be harder later on in one’s career when you have seniority because vacation time is tied to seniority. Early career travel is easiest for that reason and it’s easy to get a nursing visa, Latreille explains.

Outside of nursing, Latreille makes jewelry with herbs, seal skin and fox fur. Just before the pandemic started, she started seeing similar jewelry and got inspired to try for herself. She started with rabbit fur and some beads and expanded into seal skin work. She makes earrings, necklaces, pins, hair clips, and other creations like candles in teacups. She doesn’t do fringe earrings and likes to buy earrings from other artists that she doesn’t make herself. Her sales are mostly in person because she works full time and doesn’t have time to keep up with a website so market sales make the most sense and keep her busy. Also, each of her pieces are different.

To maintain her mental health, Latreille works a two days, two nights, five days off schedule so she has time to relax, get chores done and rest before she goes back to work. That time to recharge is important to her. She also maintains relationships with her friends and family and has hobbies to support her wellness. Having other things to focus on outside of work keeps her from burning out and helps with work life balance. Making sure to take her breaks is also important, even though it can be tempting to do her charting instead. She tries to leave the unit and relax so she can clear her head.

When it comes to inspiration, Latreille does what she enjoys for work, knowing she does have to do some kind of work. “Knowing that I can go to work and make a difference and enjoy some sweet baby cuddles, honestly, like I can't even think of anything else that I would rather do. Do something that you enjoy and that you find joy in,” she advises. Similarly, she loves the jewelry she makes.

Her advice around picking a career path is, “Do what you enjoy. It might not always be the most financially beneficial, but you're happy, and your mental health is happy. You have to make sure that at the end of the day you're happy with what you're doing. For me, it's babies. In all honesty, I love babies, I get to do what I love, and that's the best thing in the world.”

Working at her dream job as a neonatal nurse is perfect for Amanda Latreille given ever since she was a young child, she’s been in awe of babies. After working as a travel nurse and exploring her options, she found a place that fit her best in a city that feels like home. The educational path was demanding but now she gets to cuddle babies every day while she nurses them to health and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thank you to Alison Tedford Seaweed for authoring this article!