Nurse Carmen MacKie named Citizen of Year in Hudson Bay
With files from the Junction Review – serving Hudson Bay and Area
The Rotary Club of Hudson Bay named Public Health Nurse Carmen MacKie as Citizen of the Year in Hudson Bay for 2021. MacKie was also the recipient of the Paul Harris Fellowship. The announcement was made November 19.
MacKie was nominated for the award by her two co-workers, Sanchal Bjerland and Dru Zurba.
“The last year and a half have been anything but normal. We went from normalcy to every day change in the blink of an eye. We have battled this virus to the best of our abilities,” MacKie said in accepting the award. “Public Health has changed. We have swelled with work, and have tried to navigate territory we knew was coming, had prepared for decades, but never really knew what to expect. Our multi-faceted health-care system and levels of management intertwined with the best of intentions to keep people safe.”
MacKie has lived in Hudson Bay since 1999 and has been a community leader, volunteering in a number of ways, as well as teaching first-aid, mentoring, and coaching her daughters’ basketball team for almost 20 years. She worked for 15 years in the acute care system before moving to Public Health full-time. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, her community looked to her for advice and guidance, which she was happy to provide.
MacKie admitted that it was tough to focus on new pandemic roles and responsibilities while trying to also do her regular job, which includes adult and childhood immunizations, pre-natal and post-natal teaching, school immunizations, Communicable Disease and mental health support.
“Life has definitely been unbalanced. Since the pandemic, I’ve worked longer hours, covered on weekends and tried to educate people about the misinformation they have read,” said MacKie. “It’s exhausting both mentally and physically.”
The team of professionals she works with, she noted – from out-of-scope managers to fellow Public Health Nurses, to Public Health Inspectors and Therapies team, and Dr. Khan, their local Medical Health Officer – have been invaluable during this pandemic.
“We all had to become experts of not only COVID-19 disease, but new computer programs, booking systems and contact tracing applications that would help transform the health and management of a population,” MacKie said.
“I really accepted this award as a member of a stellar team.”
The gym, walking trails and cross-country ski trails around Hudson Bay have calmed her mind when she didn’t think it was possible, she noted. “Thank goodness for nature!”
She really loves her work, she added. “I feel like I’m here for a reason,” she noted. “The long hours and unpredictability, I feel, is just part of the job.”
MacKie never considered she’d get recognition for her pandemic work, “but it sure warmed my heart when I got the phone call and realized my co-workers had nominated me and that the nomination committee agreed. How wonderful it is to be recognized for a passion I feel so strongly about – the public’s health.”
The Paul Harris Fellowship is to recognize a person whose life demonstrates a shared purpose with the objectives of the Rotary Foundation.
