Notes, Nursing, and New Horizons: A Journey of Learning and Service
25 at 25 | Heidi Derksen (CMU '14)
When Heidi Derksen meets for a conversation in the mid-afternoon, she's wrapping up her day and going to sleep after the interview ends. This unconventional bedtime is because she's an ICU nurse in Saskatoon's hospitals, working alternating day and night shifts. The routine can be taxing, but it allows her a lot of flexibility for one of her favourite activities: travel.
Derksen has worked overseas numerous times over the last few years, volunteering for nonprofit organizations or working on nursing contracts. She's helped in Ukraine during the current war, in Turkey after an earthquake, and at an Afghani refugee camp in Albania.
She didn't start in the medical field, though. She graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Music, with piano and harp as her main instruments. Her learning was not limited to music courses, though. "I really liked that CMU allowed me to do a lot of different things," Derksen says. "Within the music degree, I was able to study a lot of different things that I probably couldn't have in another university and broaden my horizons." This included many of the courses required for nursing, which meant she was able to complete her future nursing degree in almost half the time of the full program.
After earning her bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing, Derksen also completed nursing certificates in critical care and neuroscience. Her master's project explored how critical thinking and education, like in medical schools, can destigmatize addiction and integrate harm reduction.
Her music origins didn't leave her, though, as she found ways to incorporate that passion into the healthcare world. "In my nursing program there were different ways to integrate music and art, and I think it definitely helped me develop a more holistic view of nursing because of my background in music," she says. "There were cool different opportunities I was able to bring my harp to, like nursing conferences or into the hospital."
Derksen is often incorporating new elements or challenges into her work, whether it's playing music, staffing the COVID ICU, or working in a distant country surrounded by unfamiliar languages and threats of danger. You could say she works well under pressure.
"I was in Turkey after the earthquake, and actually another earthquake hit us when I was there, which is pretty crazy," she says. "It felt kind of like being on a boat, but you were on the ground, and we were in the parking lot of this hospital that was partially collapsed, so we were scared it was going to fall on us. You go through this scary experience and then a few minutes later everyone's coming to the hospital... and now I have to take care of all these people."
Even when she's not working, Derksen is embarking on exciting escapades outdoors, from hiking and skiing to climbing and canoeing—any activity she can share with friends and have some adventure.
Friendship and community are important to Derksen. It's something she developed at CMU, where she lived on campus for her whole degree—two years in Poettcker and two years in Concord. "I definitely loved the community. I miss it, but I've also tried to create it in different places and spaces since then." She remembers the dining hall as the hub everyone revolved around, whether it was getting into debates during evening snack or catching up on each other's weekends at Monday lunch. "That tight-knit community of people, and sometimes it's people you wouldn't have been friends with [otherwise]... was a really good learning experience for going to different places in the world and building community."