{"id":1117,"date":"2023-02-13T16:43:43","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T16:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2023-02-13T17:08:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T17:08:36","slug":"seanice-dennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/seanice-dennis\/","title":{"rendered":"Seanice Dennis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seanice Dennis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Registered Practical Nurse<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I come from a single-parent home. My mom tried her best but with three children on one income, we didn\u2019t have the same privileges as other families. In high school, I wasn\u2019t academically inclined and my mom couldn\u2019t afford the academic supports needed for a student with learning difficulties. I wanted to be a hairdresser but my mom encouraged me to pick a career with job security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, I was deemed an at-risk youth, which qualified me for community services and youth mentorship programs. After a victory year of high school, one of my mentors took me to dinner. She asked about my career plans and urged me to consider post-secondary school. That\u2019s what convinced me to go to college. I then enrolled in pre-health sciences and finally got the academic support I needed to succeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an at-risk youth, I was exposed to situations that children shouldn\u2019t be exposed to during their developmental years. I considered a career in social work, to support other at-risk youth in the way that I was, but I couldn\u2019t imagine dealing with that heaviness every day. Nursing provides a nice compromise. There\u2019s some social working involved, some caregiving. And I don\u2019t take it home with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I joined St. Joseph\u2019s in 2018 as a Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) on one of our medicine units. In 2020, I completed training to work in the operating room and in 2021, I became the first Black RPN to work in the Cystoscopy Department. RPNs are only recently allowed to work in the cystoscopy suite so it\u2019s been an exciting challenge. As a cystoscopy RPN, I prep patients for their procedures and then I scrub in to assist the urologist with surgical procedures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I take pride in being the first Black RPN in our department but getting to this point hasn\u2019t been easy. I face constant microaggressions. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Throughout my career as an RPN, I\u2019ve been called a monkey, the N-word. I\u2019ve had patients accuse me of not being Black or ask me what bleaching cream I use because I have a fairer complexion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These microaggressions don\u2019t stop with patients. I\u2019m often tone policed by colleagues or accused of yelling. I was recounting an incident once when a leader told me that I sounded angry. I wasn\u2019t angry. I was just telling my side of the story. It\u2019s disheartening. I constantly have to be mindful of how I communicate with others to avoid being deemed an angry Black woman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You never get used to these interactions but you develop coping mechanisms. I\u2019ve been carrying crystals to help ground me when I\u2019m having a challenging conversation. I\u2019ve also become better at verbalizing when I need space or when a patient would be better suited to one of my colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My team is supportive and it\u2019s been nice to see change starting across the organization. There are more Black staff working in the area of equity and anti-racism, which makes a big difference. If I\u2019m reaching out for support, I don\u2019t have to worry about my tone or how I\u2019m perceived. They just get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard enough having to deal with anti-Black racism in society, I don\u2019t need to encounter it in the workplace too. It would be nice if people were more compassionate to the Black experience. That\u2019s all I want. But even then, I wouldn\u2019t change my experience for anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seanice (Shawn-neece) Dennis is a Registered Practical Nurse in the Cystoscopy Department at St. Joseph\u2019s Health Centre.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As told to Anna Wassermann. Photos by Yuri Markarov. This interview has been edited and condensed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seanice Dennis Registered Practical Nurse I come from a single-parent home. My mom tried her best but with three children on one income, we didn\u2019t have the same privileges as other families. In high school, I wasn\u2019t academically inclined and my mom couldn\u2019t afford the academic supports needed for a student with learning difficulties. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1125,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions\/1125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/features.unityhealth.to\/behind-the-mask\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}