Amplifying the Voices of Black Nurses Everywhere - Lakeridge Health Nurse Part of National Nursing Organization

“You can be a leader wherever you’re at.” It’s something Ava Onwudegwu, Patient Care Manager of the Critical Care Unit at the Ajax Pickering Hospital, wants all nurses to know. 

In addition to holding a Masters in Nursing and having more than a decade of experience in a variety of bedside nursing and nursing leadership and teaching roles, Ava is also Vice President and one of the founders of the Canadian Black Nurses Alliance (CBNA).

Established following the tragic death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 and the uprise that followed, the CBNA’s mission is to “serve, mentor, and empower Black Canadian Nurses through the power of community.”

“It was triggered by us as individual nurses recognizing that we were oftentimes in leadership roles where we were the only Black person or person of colour at the table. We didn’t see that representation in mid or senior levels of leadership, especially in health care,” said Ava.

“Our goal is to amplify the work that those in our communities do and highlight that there are a lot of amazing nurses out there that are often overlooked, unseen, or not given opportunities.”

Ava added that “we also want people to see that nursing is not just limited to the bedside and that there’s so many opportunities out there to explore, even outside of the role of nursing because our skills are so transferrable.”

Since its launch, the CBNA has expanded with provincial chapters and academic chapters in nursing schools across the country and its members have also been consultants to different organizations and universities. “Our chapters are Black focused but not Black exclusive,” Ava noted. “We definitely want to amplify Black nurses, but our work is also about supporting the overall advancement of nursing from the level of practice, education, research, as well as in policy, advocacy, and politics.”

Additionally, the CBNA holds two annual events – one focused on the professional side of nursing in May and another focused on the more academic side of the profession in October.

This year, for the organization’s May event, Ava is moderating a panel discussion on Internationally Educated Nurses. “There’s over 17,000 Internationally Educated Nurses in Ontario alone and not even half of that number is actually practicing because of the barriers and challenges of getting into the system,” noted Ava. “So, we wanted to get some of the key stakeholders at the table to talk about this issue and what we’re doing as a nation and as a province to support this group of nurses.”

Although Ava has only been at Lakeridge Health for about a year, she shared that she’s been “welcomed and embraced since I got here. It’s a great team of nurses that I have the privilege of managing. They’ve been receptive, they’re resilient and innovative in their approach to nursing, and they embody teamwork in the best way.”

When she looks to the future, Ava’s hopes for nursing are that “we continue to work on building and championing quality in terms of the services we provide.”