Rachel Radyk

Public Health Nurse and Indigenous Nurse Navigator

Rachel is a Canadian nurse of Indigenous and settler heritage. Her Indigenous ancestry is linked to the Chippewa nation of Georgina Island in Ontario, Canada. Rachel was inspired to pursue nursing in her mother’s footsteps. After starting her Bachelor’s degree in communications in 2011, she decided to pivot towards a nursing career through Conestoga College and became a practical nurse in 2018. Through a post-practical nurse bridge program at Ontario Tech University, she completed her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing and graduated as a valedictorian in 2021. She also was able to complete her communication’s degree in the fall of 2020. As a student she also created an Indigenous Nurses and Allies Interest Group with the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario and received the President’s Award of Excellence in Leadership.

Since 2018, Rachel’s nursing career has spanned many specialties. After graduating as a practical nurse, she worked on a general medicine unit and then alongside her mother as a clinical research assistant manager in cardiac research. She has also completed clinical rotations in maternity and emergency room, as well as in community nurse roles in cardiac rehab and pediatrics. In 2021, she joined the Waterloo Immunization Team as a public health nurse to administer vaccines and also became a COVID navigator for the urban Indigenous community to be informed about vaccination. She also worked with the Native Women’s Association of Canada to provide education on sexual health and reproductive rights. Rachel is currently an Indigenous patient navigator at the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Center where she works with hospitals to support Indigenous clients from admission to discharge, serving as a liaison between the client and the health care team.

In 2007 Canada implemented the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which established the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and launched the first day of National Truth and Reconciliation in 2021. The commission created seven calls to action related to healthcare that can be tracked here. They call for nursing schools to incorporate skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism, as well as a course on Indigenous history, teachings, practices, and health issues. Many of these changes were occurring during Rachel’s own nursing education.

The first step in reconciliation is to learn the history that wasn’t taught to us. We need to start with the source of our education, with our educators. We can’t facilitate change in future generations if faculty aren’t learning too. — Rachel Radyk

Subsequent commissions have also impacted healthcare and nursing. A 236-page report published in 2020 detailed the extent of Canadian healthcare discrimination and racism and offered 24 recommendations to address systems, beliefs, behaviors, and implementation (begins on page 191). Implementing policies to improve Indigenous health equity, investing in ways patients can report racism, and increasing calls to expand Indigenous-led health care partnerships are also part of Canada’s efforts to improve health equity. Rachel is committed to using her nursing skills to work in improving the health of the Canadian Indigenous community and the next step in her career will be applying for her Master’s in Nursing Leadership.

Further Resources

View Rachel’s Nurses You Should Know Video.

Hear Rachel’s interview on The Gritty Nurse Podcast.

Sources

The information for the above profile was provided by Rachel Radyk.

Learn More

To learn more about inclusion in nursing and be part of the national discussion to address racism in nursing, check out and share the following resources:

Know Your History

• Nursing CLIO to engage with historians and scholars committed to deep work around historical accuracy in healthcare and nursing.
• American Association for the History of Nursing to attend monthly webinars on topics of nursing history, view the calendar here.

Examine Bias

• NurseManifest to attend live zoom sessions with fellow nurses on nursing’s overdue reckoning on racism or to sign their pledge.
• Breaking Bias in Healthcare, an online course created by scientist Anu Gupta, to learn how bias is related to our brain’s neurobiology and can be mitigated with mindfulness.
• Revolutionary Love Learning Hub provides free tools for learners and educators to use love as fuel towards ourselves, our opponents, and to others so that we can embody a world where we see no strangers.

Support & Advocate

• National Coalition for Ethnic Minority Nurse Association to stay engaged with topics relevant to nurses of color.

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