Kim Franchina

Registered Nurse, St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa

Nursing – Class of 1991
Nursing Assistant Program – Class of 1988

Kim Franchina recalls sitting in her father’s room at the Heart Institute and feeling helpless. Her father was in crisis, medical equipment was being deployed, nurses were coming to his aid, and she could do nothing.

“I was clueless,” Franchina says as she recalls the experience. “I had no idea what was going on. I’m sitting there and I can’t help. I couldn’t do anything for my father in that moment, and it gave me a real sense of what was important in life.”

At the time, she had a secure job with the government. “I was pushing papers, if you will, but it was not a bad place to be when you’re 25-ish. But the more I thought about it, it didn’t have the same meaning as being able to help someone, especially my family.”

Franchina switched gears and embarked on a completely new career as a nurse. Some of the process was humbling. Returning to school for the first time in years meant doing remedial work – “basic math, basic this, basic that” – to bring front of mind things she hadn’t needed to remember for a long time.

But what she soon experienced, first in the Nursing Assistant program, Class of 1988, then in Nursing with the Class of 1991, was the fulfilment of a dream. In the first program, she found the combination of classroom studies and practical work as a nursing assistant ideal. “School is one thing and actually being on site in a hospital is another. It allowed me to be alongside working nurses who were happy to answer my questions and give me insights into the nurse’s role.”

It also made it clear that she wanted to take on more studies and the larger role accorded to registered nurses. She says she was – and is to this day – curious about everything. “I am just nosy, basically. I thought, ‘Let me see if I can do that,’ – say, dealing with wounds – not because I had a really big interest in wounds, I just had this hunger to learn. Whatever I needed to know to reach my goal, I was keen to take on. I knew Algonquin’s reputation, I knew it produced really good nurses, and I was going to take full advantage of the opportunity.”

It’s not hard to determine how Franchina has earned a sterling reputation as a teacher and mentor in her years as a nurse and nursing educator. In part it’s her way of paying forward the generosity that was shown to her: she says she had many mentors in school and in the workplace over the years, people who were generous with information, support and insight when it was needed.

“Pat Crossley, God love her soul, she was one of my nursing teachers. I owe her a debt of gratitude because she taught me to never settle but always strive for excellence. She also always said, ‘Just treat everybody like they’re your family.’ It was an amazing lesson. Maybe someday robots will replace a lot of nursing functions, but nothing can replace basic compassion. You have to connect with people. It’s not hard to do most of the time and it never stops you from fulfilling your responsibilities as a nurse.”

She remains friends with her first head nurse in the late ‘80s at the Queensway Carleton Hospital. “She’s phenomenal. We still chat about this situation and that one, and sometimes just marvel that we’re still at it after all these years.” And she is a mentor and friend to many of the students and colleagues she works with to this day.

Franchina has a seemingly inexhaustible source of energy. “My parents were very Catholic, and it was part of my family culture growing up – contributing to society, being productive.”

After graduating from the College, she went on to earn both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing science. She did specializations in oncology and hospice/palliative care from the Canadian Association of Nurses. She has served on the Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology (CANO), Champlain Chapter Executive; she says the CANO conference she helped organize in Ottawa focused on Indigenous issues was an experience “that changed my life forever.”

Today, Franchina is happily married and the mother of four children. She works as an RN at St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa and as a clinical instructor for Algonquin College.

A Thalidomide survivor – her left hand is compromised, but she’s quick to note it hasn’t hindered her in achieving her goals – she has participated in numerous bike rides, marathons and half-marathons to raise money for charity. She received the PharmaSave Remarkable Woman Award in 2004, has won numerous nursing awards through The Ottawa Hospital, and has been nominated for a YMCA Woman of Distinction award three times.

The father Franchina watched through his health crisis decades ago is her greatest supporter to this day. Her mother, 91, and father, 93, were encouraging about her nursing studies and career from the start.

“They were just so proud about my decision to go back to school and to pursue whatever level of education I wanted. Now they joke that when they began to encourage me, it never occurred to them they might need my knowledge someday. As they begin to require more care, they’re like, ‘Oh, that investment paid off.’ But it’s no joke when I say that it’s the best feeling in the world to be able to give back to your parents. I find it such a blessing and a privilege.”