Date: 2005
Location: Canmore
Profile: Maureen Brass was part of the first Public Health unit team in Canmore in 1974 where she initiated home care service in the town. Born in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, Brass graduated from the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in 1964 and then trained as a midwife and nurse practitioner in Glasgow. Searching adventure, she moved to Canada in 1968, settling first in Toronto before beginning a Canadian nursing career that spanned the Arctic, Foothills Hospital in Calgary, the Nakoda First Nation reserve, the Canmore Hospital, and finally the Mountain View Health Unit in Canmore (now the Headwaters Health Authority). She worked at the health unit for 21 ½ years before retiring, after which she continued to be a volunteer extraordinaire whose contributions to Canmore were recognized with a Governor General’s award in 1995. She moved to Sorrento, B.C, in 2008 to be closer to her twin sons. She passed away there in 2012.
Brass’s public health work in Canmore spanned work with families and seniors, establishing prenatal classes and organizing home care, among other preventative healthcare programs. Her interview mentions the struggles over time for nurses to win respect from physicians in terms of their medical knowledge.
Keywords: Arctic; Canmore Hospital; Foothills Hospital; Headwaters Health Authority; Homecare; Mountain View Health Unit; Nakoda First Nation; Nurse-physician relations; Nurse practitioner; Public health.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: United Nurses of Alberta; Women and Work in Alberta