Tonya Ratushniak, registered psychiatric nurse

A passionate advocate for mental health registered psychiatric nurse, Tonya Ratushniak, seeks to make a positive impact on the quality of life in the community at large in all she does. Tonya was one of the early advocates for the Mindwell Take 5 program, a tool to encourage best practices for mental status charting in Alberta. She successfully lobbied the College of Registered Psychiatric Nurses of Alberta for funds to roll it out. Tonya was extensively involved in its promotion and activation at St. Mary’s Hospital and beyond. One of the goals of the program is to support consistent use of professional vocabulary around mental status.

Tonya has been an active committee member of the Young Medical Minds program at the hospital since its inception in 2014. This program exposes grade eight students to health care. Her participation in the program helps to destigmatize mental health diagnosis and to demystify mental illness to youth in the community.

She networks with other professionals and resources around the community. She advocates mental health support for all. While mental health services have typically been offered to inpatients and outpatients on unit 3 at the hospital, Tonya has arranged to deliver mental health services to inpatients on medical and surgical units who need them.

Tonya dedicates one day per week to focus on staff mental health and wellbeing. Doing so has helped staff stay well and provide excellent care for patients.