Mission

The mission of HRNA is to promote the advancement of harm reduction nursing through practice, education, research, and advocacy. HRNA strives to achieve its mission through the following actions:

  • Serving as a national voice for harm reduction and related nursing issues
  • Promoting education and continuous learning opportunities for nurses
  • Providing opportunities to share nursing knowledge, expertise and practices
  • Encouraging evidence-based harm reduction nursing practices
  • Creating a dynamic network to support and mentor nurses across the country
  • Advocating for the creation and implementation of harm reduction policies
  • Working collaboratively with partners to address structural conditions that create harms
  • Advocating for the rights and dignity of people who use drugs and their families

Statements

Board of Directors

marilou_gagnon_HRNA_harm_reduction

President

Marilou Gagnon, RN, PhD

Associate Professor in Nursing at the University of Victoria. She is the founder of the Coalition of Nurses and Nursing Students for Supervised Injection Services and creator of the Facebook Campaign Harm Reduction = Nursing Care. She was Expert Advisor Policy, Research and Advocacy of the Canadian Association of Nurses in HIV/AIDS Care (CANAC) (2013-2016).

Vice-President

Tim Gauthier, RN, BSN, MSN

Clinical Coordinator, Insite Supervised Injection Site and Onsite. He has worked at Insite since 2008 in front-line and leadership positions.  He has reviewed and developed policy and procedure documents at agency and provincial levels, and was a primary instigator of the expansion of RN scope of practice permitting autonomous dispensation of Naloxone by Registered Nurses in 2014. He was also the recipient of UBC’s Young Alumni award in 2012 for his advocacy work around harm reduction and supervised injection, when the fate of Insite stood before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Treasurer

Scott Harrison RN(C) BScN MA CCHN(C)

Director of Strategy & Transformation, Urban Health, Aboriginal Health, Mental Health and Substance Use at Providence Health Care – St Paul’s Hospital and Adjunct Professor of Nursing at UBC. He was President of the Canadian Association of Nurses in HIV/AIDS Care (CANAC) (2012-2015) and Expert Advisor: Communication and Knowledge Exchange (2015-2017).

Secretary

Leigh Chapman, RN, BA (Hons), BScN, MSc (Nursing), PhD (Candidate)

Leigh Chapman is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto’s Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and a doctoral research fellow at The Wilson Centre. After the death of Leigh’s older brother Brad in August 2015, Leigh became a harm reduction activist. She is the co-founder of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society and Moss Park Overdose Prevention site, where she also volunteered for 11 months when it was an unsanctioned site. Leigh is also an advocate for issues related to homelessness, harm reduction, social justice, stigma, and drug policy reform.

Regional Representative
(West)

Trish Dribnenki, RPN, BScPN

Trish works as a Community Nurse at the Downtown Community Health Clinic and Crosstown Providence Clinic, Vancouver. Trish recently moved to Vancouver, BC from Calgary, Alberta. Co-Founder of “mental” film and art festival in Calgary, Alberta. Awarded, “Registered Psychiatric Nurse of the Year” by the College of Registered Psychiatric Nurses of Alberta in 2013. Harm Reduction is her favorite, and is in all of her work and life.

Regional Representative
(Central)

Bryce Koch RN, BN, PCP

Emergency Room Nurse with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. He founded a harm reduction program in Winnipeg called Project Safe Audience (PSA). PSA targets high risk behaviours in the underground/rave music scene. In addition, Bryce has worked at Shambhala Music Festival in a harm reduction and emergency nurse capacity. He has trained their “Sanctuary” staff in naloxone administration for the last 2 years

Regional Representative
(East)

Kimberly Wilbur, RN, BN

Kim Wilbur is a Nurse Instructor at the University of New Brunswick, Department of Nursing & Health Sciences. Throughout her nursing career Kim has always been closely connected to vulnerable populations while advocating for improvements in healthcare service delivery. Community service based learning, research and harm reduction are foundational to her collaborative professional nursing practice. She has been instrumental in the inclusion of peers within mental health programming as well as the development and implementation of new models of care for young adults living with mental health and addiction issues through significant CIHR and Medavie Health Foundation funding.