In Northern Canada, where temperatures drop to -50 degrees Celsius during the winter with four hours of sunshine per day, healthcare looks a lot different.
Jenna Jenkins (PharmD ’19) and Christopher Voss (PharmD ’19) began their pharmacy careers in the Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island) Region in Nunavut. All of Qikiqtaaluk’s 13 communities are located on tidal water and around half live in Nunavut’s capital and only city, Iqaluit, a three-hour flight from Ottawa.
“Working somewhere so remote and isolated provides many additional complexities and challenges which make our pharmacy practices quite unique,” Jenna says.
Jenna and Chris stress the importance of Waterloo’s co-op and rotations programs.
“With the hands-on experiences from the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, we were more confident to jump into new experiences so we could continue to build and learn as pharmacists,” they say.