Coffee Chat with Alumni Kenneth Fox: Life as an ICU Registered Nurse and Master’s of Nursing student

Toronto-based ICU Registered Nurse, Kenneth Fox, discusses his nursing career journey after graduating as the 2015 valedictorian of UNB-Humber’s BN Program.

Interviewer/Writer: Monika Mercado

Last Updated: Thursday, February 17th, 2022

Nurse Kenneth Fox proves that learning does not end once graduating from university. On Tuesday, April 10th, 2021, Kenneth discussed his nursing journey and his continuous desire to further his education, so he can provide better care for his patients and teach.

After graduating in 2015, Kenneth immediately began his nursing career in the Surgical Oncology Unit at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He describes this unit as, “an extremely busy unit. It’s surgical—which means we’re getting post-operative patients and you have between four to six patients, four on days and six on nights. It was a really great unit to learn and grow to develop my skills.” While he worked on this unit, Kenneth also had the opportunity to work as the team leader.

One of the influential factors that helped Kenneth further his nursing career was a mentor whom he worked with. He says that she provided him the best advice he had ever received as a new-grad nurse.

“The advice I got was from that first mentor I had in Surgical Oncology. I was brand new and nervous. She said, ‘Find your voice.’ I didn’t understand what it meant at the time, but I gradually developed it. You have to learn how to approach patients and connect with them individually. You can’t just read a script and be able to find out somebody’s main health goal. You have to be able to express yourself and find your own vision of nursing—your own nursing philosophy,” says Kenneth.

Kenneth realized he was interested in critical care nursing when he was in his last semester of nursing school. For his pre-grad placement, he was working at St. Michael’s Hospital’s Trauma/Neuro/Surgical ICU. In order to work as an RN on an ICU, one must obtain a critical care program certificate.

“I went to George Brown where I did the critical care course and that is extremely intensive. They really hammer you with pathophysiology and your advanced knowledge of anatomy, patho and critical nursing care … At Sunnybrook they offer an externship. They actually paid for me to go to George Brown. That program is full-time. You’re not doing anything besides eat, sleep and nursing for about 3 months. Sunnybrook pays for it, and then they put you into a different placement. So they are the ones that funded me to go to the CVICU,” says Kenneth.

To overcome challenges in his nursing career, Kenneth says that it was important for him to constantly review his nursing notes.

“When I started the ICU course, I had it in my head that I didn’t want to have to look things up anymore. I wanted to know them. You have to know your pathophysiology—intricate knowledge of the body at the cellular level. I really studied hard. The patho and the biology [at Humber] really helped me,” Kenneth says.

Since successfully passing the Critical Care Program, Kenneth has been working at Sunnybrook’s Level 3 Cardiovascular ICU (CVICU). Below, Kenneth walks us through a typical day-shift on the CVICU.

“The first thing you do in the morning, you go in and you get report from the outgoing RN. She is going to tell me about the patient’s history, and why they’re in the hospital, all of their comorbidities, and then she’s going to describe their current status—which includes basically a head-to-toe assessment of the patient. Then we go over bloodwork and family. Then I’ll do my own assessment which usually takes between 30 minutes to 1 hour; I look at every inch of the patient’s body, I look at all the bloodwork, I’m looking at the telemetry monitor, and I have to recognize and interpret all of these results and see what the plan for this patient is for the day.

Typically, the patients in our ICU are very sick. You have to be aware that a change in one number, although it might not be critical at that moment, it might have an effect on another system of the body. You really have to know your pathophysiology!

Then it’s mostly coordinating with the physicians, dieticians, physiotherapists, pharmacists to develop a plan of care. We’re all trying to work out what’s the best plan for the patient. Then, it’s implementing these plans and taking care of the patient. These patients are total care.

Lately, with the pandemic, [the nurse-to-patient ratio] hasn’t been 1:1 because we’ve been so short-staffed. It can be 1:2. That’s not ideal because these patients are critical, and it can be almost dangerous for a nurse to have two of these critical patients. Ideally, it’s 1:1.”

Kenneth is one of the many hard-working frontline health care providers helping patients during this surreal time. In addition to working full-time, he is a Master’s of Nursing student at Athabasca University with a focus on education. He recently completed his first course in his Master’s of Nursing program, and plans on taking one course at a time as he works full-time.

Kenneth says his day as a Master’s of Nursing student, “usually means between 20 to 30 hours a week of reading, studying, participation component, numerous papers and assignments –and I am working full-time so that’s 80 hours every 2 weeks. It’s a lot. I wasn’t expecting the first course to be that heavy. To factor in that we’re in a pandemic and being in the ICU, I didn’t realize how burned out I was going to get. So thankfully I have a month off between the courses.”

Although there are some challenges, Kenneth says that the most rewarding situations he’s found himself in are the relationships he has with his patients.

“Developing really mutually beneficial therapeutic relationships is the best part of the job, for me. I feel like I can really connect with somebody when they’re my patient. Because when somebody comes to the hospital, they’re at their most vulnerable. They’re seeking and needing help. They need care, and we can develop a meaningful relationship with that person. Then you can watch them through their journey as they get better! Nothing beats that,” Kenneth says.

Kenneth says that he plans on continuing to work in the ICU until he finishes his Master’s of Nursing degree. Afterwards, his goal is to move into clinical education and become a clinical educator at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre!

Below are additional questions that Kenneth answered.

With the knowledge and experience that you have now, what would you tell your younger self when you were a nursing student?

“Sometimes I was really struggling in nursing school. I would say to myself, ‘Stick with it. You’re on the right path. You just have to focus and bear down when it’s time.’ I would tell myself that ‘You are on the right path.’ Because now that I’ve been doing it for so long, I absolutely love it and I wouldn’t change anything!”

What type of unit would you recommend doing consolidation in, if you have no idea where you want to be?

“Surgical because it’s fast-paced and you see a little bit of everything! You’ll fine-tune your skills there. You’re always doing bloodwork, inserting catheters, or NGs [nasogastric tubes]. There’s a lot of complications that surgical patients can have, so you’re going to see a lot of different services (ENT, Oncology, Urology), which might help you focus on what you really enjoy.”

Any advice for nursing students who want to go into the ICU?

“Try to get your consolidation in the ICU. I found it extremely rewarding. Speak to the 4th year coordinator and say it’s your interest. I would definitely recommend it because my knowledge base since I started the ICU program has sky-rocketed!”

How was your experience writing the NCLEX and where did you do your consolidation?

“[My consolidation] placement itself really helped me with the NCLEX. It’s an ICU, so they really focus on the pathophysiology. Studying for the NCLEX was a challenge. I found a couple of NCLEX-specific textbooks and I was doing online examinations that were really helpful. There’s Kaplan and UWorld!”

I understand that you’re pursuing a Master’s of Nursing degree with a focus on education. What drew you into teaching?

“I never thought I would, but as soon as I started nursing, you get nursing students that’re assigned with you and I found that I had an act for it, and I also like helping people learn! I’m not saying that I know everything, obviously I don’t—but I like finding out things together and helping someone to learn and help them to find and seek their own goals.”

Is your Master’s research-based or course-based? What helped you make that decision?

“It’s course-based. I’m enrolled with Athabasca which is strictly online. The reason why I chose it is because I can go at my own pace. I can take one course at a time. I also like the fact that there's no clinical component to it.”

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Coffee Chats with Alumni is a Student Engagement event hosted by the Humber Nursing Society (HNS). These coffee chats were hosted from March to April of 2021 via Microsoft Teams. Hosted and interviewed by members of the HNS, nursing students were able tune into the coffee chat and ask questions using the chat box. For more insight and tips from UNB-Humber’s alumni check out the other Coffee Chats with Alumni here: https://humberjournalofnur.wixsite.com/hjn2021