KAMLOOPS – There’s an inequity in returning Canadian soldiers’ health care, a Thompson Rivers University researcher has found.
Major Wendy McKenzie, a TRU Nursing instructor and deputy commanding officer with the Rocky Mountain Rangers, was at NATO headquarters in Brussels this past April to deliver her paper, “Global deployment of Reserve Force Solders: A Leadership Challenge,” to an international audience.
Her paper looked at the psychological support necessary for reserve or part-time soldiers prior, during and specifically following deployments to combat zones.
McKenzie’s perspective as Deputy Commanding Officer with the Rocky Mountain Rangers coupled with 29 years as a reservist gave her insight into deployment of reservists. McKenzie is thought to be the only Canadian military nursing officer currently serving as a Deputy Commander of an Infantry Combat Arms Unit.
“Our reserves are being called more often to serve in conflict situations like those in Afghanistan and Bosnia,” said McKenzie, who estimates that reservists make up upward of 10 per cent of Canadian troops in conflict zones today.
“There is not an unlimited supply of regular-force soldiers to fill the Canadian commitments in places like Afghanistan; therefore reservists will be needed to fill the gap.
“We are duty-bound to ensure these men and women, who volunteer to deploy, are looked after when they come home,” she said.
Unlike regular forces, where an entire unit is called for duty, the call to duty for reserves is more likely an offer, and may only be extended to an individual.
McKenzie identified a gap in health-care services for individual reservists who serve and then return to isolated communities across the country.
“Coming home from a deployment to Kamloops, for instance, is different from returning to a military base. Currently the reservist does not have access to the whole support network available on a full-time army base,” she said.
Besides her paper, McKenzie had input into three chapters of a book being written to guide NATO military commanders in psychological support for combat soldiers. She will also be undertaking research in the near future that will reinforce existing military policy for BC for psychological support for reserve force soldiers.
McKenzie joined the Rocky Mountain Rangers soon after she graduated from South Kamloops High School. A summer position with the Rangers included first-aid training which progressed into provincial and national first-aid competitions and sparked her interest in health care. After graduating from Thompson Rivers University in 1984 with a nursing diploma, she spent 20 years as a critical care nurse at Royal Inland Hospital, during which time she returned to university to complete a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 2000. She’s been a nursing instructor at TRU since 2004 but still is an active practitioner, working a shift or two every month at RIH to keep current and to give context to her course work.
She also serves as the aide-de-camp for Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo when Her Excellency is in the BC Interior, and is curator of the Rocky Mountain Rangers military museum and National President of the Army Museums of Canada.
For more information, please contact Wendy McKenzie at 250-377-6141
For photo please contact Bronwen Scott.
