Becoming a Registered Nurse

The Future Face of Nursing Profiles

Nursing in the Canadian Forces: Captain Christine Matthews

Describing herself as a “late bloomer,” Captain Christine Matthews joined the Canadian Forces at age 26. Matthews is originally from Grand Bank, Newfoundland.

After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Matthews was posted to Halifax. In 2000, she led a group of military colleagues in full combat gear on a 160-kilometre march over four days in the Netherlands, replicating the liberation route of Canadian soldiers in the Second World War. When she heard Canada was sending a mission to Kabul in 2003, she volunteered to go as a general duty nurse. There, she had her first encounter with war injuries.

She returned to Canada, completed a critical care specialty certification in Halifax, and spent time in Petawawa as a platoon commander running training exercises.

Matthews was deployed on a Disaster Assistance Relief Team (DART) mission to Pakistan in 2005 assisting earthquake victims. “People were lined up looking for help,” Matthews remembers. Matthews delights in the experience of assisting the Pakistan earthquake victims, especially the delivery of a couple of babies on camp cots in the tent.

“The experience (in Pakistan) was extraordinary,” says Matthews. “We ran the hospital 24/7. We did everything we had been trained to do, without the stress of the bombs. ”

By contrast, “Kandahar was a tough one. Our beds (in the hospital) were always full of soldiers–there was no down time,” says Matthews of her work in the military field hospital in Kandahar, one Canada’s most dangerous and demanding medical missions in recent history.

“When a (Canadian) casualty comes through the door, everybody knows everyone and it’s as if we are dealing with a member of our family,” Captain Matthews says.

The Canadian troops are in good hands with the military critical care nursing team. Captain Matthews and many of her colleagues make a practice of keeping their clinical skills “sharp and up-to-date.” The former marathoner and tri-athlete is working in the emergency room at the Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital.