COLLEEN KNOLL, RN
Renal Health Clinic, Health Sciences Centre

Colleen was nominated as part of the HSC Renal Health Clinic team. Read the nomination here.

Colleen’s career has taken different twists and turns and she feels now she is exactly where she is supposed to be.

“It was a great decision,” she says about joining the clinic team full time in 2014. She had been casual with the clinic for years and previously did hemodialysis, plasmapheresis and medical surgery nursing.

She says she enjoys being part of the clinic team caring for clinic patients. She aims to build rapport with patients in order to help them make important decisions about their kidney health.

“They want to see you, because they feel comfortable. That’s pretty rewarding,” she says.

While she often wishes she could dictate a patient’s care path, it’s her job to provide them all the education and information. “Ultimately it’s their decision.”

She says that going from a predominately hands-on nursing position to having to assess more paperwork and numbers is also something she find different and challenging.

She admits that nursing wasn’t always a clear path for her. She went into nursing with her roommate after taking agriculture in university.

“Once I got into it, I realized that this was my calling.”