When Samantha Paradis, RN, BSN, finished her degree with a double major in nursing and psychology at the University of Maine, she started he
r career at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. What she saw there changed her career path. “Early on I saw things being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that could have been prevented with health education and health literacy. I decided I wanted to do health care, not sick care. I felt I could make more of a difference by teaching people how to live healthier,” Samantha says.
Earlier this year, she was accepted as a Global Impact Fellow and traveled to Ghana to work for five weeks at an eye clinic, a US based non-governmental
organization, Unite for Sight. She worked teaching patients how to put their eye drops in correctly, especially the older population. She also worked as an RN at WCGH and will continue to work shifts as appropriate. She became the Belfast Public Health Nurse on February 22 of this year.
Samantha is hoping more of her time, 20 hours a week, can be devoted to looking at the socioeconomic status of those with health problems and figuring out how to prevent those issues. “I have been meeting with stakeholders to learn their roles in the community and to see how they see my role evolving,” says Samantha.
Samantha, who comes from the Fort Kent area, is also working on her Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of New England.