Two local nurses have been recognized by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) with awards.
They are Louela Manakil-Rankin, who received the Leadership Award in Nursing Education and Karey McCullough who received the Leadership Award in Nursing Research.
The RNAO is the professional association representing registered nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students in Ontario.
The Leadership Award in Nursing Research is presented to someone who actively explores innovative ideas in nursing research.
Karey McCullough
For Karey McCullough, nursing was a calling.
After graduating from the University of Ottawa in 1999, she returned to northern Ontario and began working in the emergency department at Thunder Bay Regional Hospital.
Getting hands-on experience, she says, opened her eyes to what nursing is all about. She decided to continue her academic studies, obtaining her master’s degree in 2004 from Queen’s University and her PhD in 2016 from the University of Alberta.
In the early years of her career, McCullough moved to North Bay, where she began working as a part-time professor at Nipissing University, while also working in the local hospital. In 2006, she got a permanent job at Nipissing and is now an associate professor.
McCullough says her reason for pursuing a career in research is simple. “I had a lot of questions,” she says, explaining she was always interested in understanding how thinking is informed when it comes to best practices in nursing. McCullough is currently a co-lead on the Nipissing University Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) team. She also recently completed research on Indigenous wellness in North Bay’s Anishinabek Nation community. For her next research topic, she is looking into international preceptorship and COVID-19.
The Leadership Award in Nursing Education (Academic) is awarded to someone who practices excellence as a nursing educator in a college or university setting.
Louela Manankil-Rankin
Louela Manankil-Rankin has worked in nursing education for 20 years.
She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1986 and achieved her PhD at McMaster University in 2015.
She currently works as an assistant professor at Nipissing University and is co-lead for the school’s Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) program. She has mentored four RNAO fellows as part of RNAO’s Advanced Clinical Practice Fellowship (ACPF), and was also a fellow herself.
Her fellowship focused on helping nursing students transform into relational and compassionate practitioners.
Manankil-Rankin has also served as the chapter president of Halton chapter (from 2017 to 2019). She says she has a passion for undergraduate education and credits her professional and personal values for how she approaches teaching.
“I believe that a competent nurse is a thinking nurse. It is someone who can reason clinically and make a prudent judgment,” she says.
The BPSO program at Nipissing University looks to help the next generation of nurses fully utilize the power of RNAO’s best practice guidelines (BPG) as well as learn from other BPSOs, she says, adding that being part of the BPSO program makes her especially honoured to be receiving a recognition award from RNAO.
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