Marcia Porter

After finishing up the third 12-hour shift of a busy clinical rotation, School of Nursing (SON) student Andrea Crowe was a little tired.

So when the phone rang, and she didn't recognize the voice, or number, Ms. Crowe assumed she had a telemarketer on the line. Ready to give a polite "Thanks but no thanks' response, her ears perked up when she caught the title of an essay paper she'd written.

Turns out the third-year bachelor of nursing student from Chilliwack, BC (with strong roots in Newfoundland and Labrador) was on the phone with the chair of the Justice Emmett Hall Foundation. She had just been named winner of the foundation's national student essay competition for her paper on physician assisted suicide and the nursing profession.

"All of a sudden it clicked," she said. "To be honest I was shocked. I forgot that I had submitted the paper. I must have sounded like a game-show contestant and I said something like, "Oh my goodness what a great way to end a 12-hour shift!"

For writing that prize-winning essay, Ms. Crowe earned a $1,000 cash prize and a trip to Montreal to receive her award during the annual Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (CAHSPR) conference.

And, she made her family proud! Ms. Crowe's mom is from St. John's, so Memorial's School of Nursing was her nursing school of choice!

The Justice Emmett Hall Memorial Foundation runs an annual student essay competition to foster Canadian health economics and health policy research among undergraduate and graduate students.

It's a competition that falls under the umbrella of the CAHSPR, a multidisciplinary association dedicated to improving health and health care.

Ms. Crowe wrote her paper for Dr. Sandra MacDonald's third-year nursing class, and received an excellent mark. She also received Dr. MacDonald's encouragement to submit her work to the competition, and for publication in the Canadian Nurse and the Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador (ARNNL) magazine.

With the Supreme Court ruling last February 2015 in favour of physician-assisted suicide, she thought it would make a timely subject for her paper.

"I loved that it was controversial and difficult," said Ms. Crowe, who is completing her nursing degree at the SON through the Canadian Armed Forces Regular Officer Training Program (ROTP). "When I started writing I thought I would have a black and white argument.

"But the more I read, the more I researched, the more difficult it became," said Ms. Crowe. "Then I had an epiphany, I realized it didn't matter what I thought, that as a future nurse it doesn't matter what my personal opinion is. What matters is that I support my patient's decision and that I'm able to do so without bias."

It was a challenging subject, but she is aiming for a challenging career as an ER or ICU nurse in the Canadian Armed Forces. Her long term-goal is to be a flight nurse specializing in aeromedical evacuation.