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#IamMGH tells the stories of our people. In honour of Black History Month, we’re centring the voices and lived experiences of our Black staff and physicians throughout February. Meet Patricia Manswell, patient care coordinator at Michael ¾ÅÓÎÌåÓý (MGH).

“As a young child I always had the dream of becoming a nurse. I pursued my dreams, but shortly after I entered school, I lost my best encourager, my mom, to breast cancer. Even though this was hard, I continued on and finished school. I worked in the paediatric department of the general hospital in my home country of Trinidad and Tobago. The experience I gained there really shaped my career. Not having the benefits of a tertiary centre in my homeland, all patients who presented to the hospital were treated by us. Whether they had leukaemia or were incubated for drowning, we did it all.

I enjoyed working there but the loss of my mom and the void it left made it difficult to stay at home any longer. Thus my new journey began in Canada and Michael ¾ÅÓÎÌåÓý, or Toronto East General Hospital as it was called at the time, became my new ground zero. My experiences brought me to a place I could flourish in. As a woman of color from another country, I was challenged by one of my colleagues at the time but because of my 'spunk,â€� I was able to respond positively.

During this experience, we had a patient admitted with a condition that I was used to treating. When I shared the things that needed to be done to care for this patient, I was told ‘that's not how we do things here.� I responded ‘just because that’s the way you do it doesn’t make it right.� Nurses from different cultures and backgrounds can sometimes be underestimated and intimidated. After these words were said to me, I realized that I would have an uphill battle to prove myself. After 33 years, I am now considered one of the most experienced nurses on MGH’s paediatric unit.�