UNITY – The University of Saskatchewan College of Nursing announced the recipients of the 2023 continuing undergraduate scholarships, bursaries and awards.
Included in the long list are two awards honouring the memory and legacy of the late Shirley Hewko-Parkinson, a public health nurse who worked in Unity and tragically passed in 2014.
The Shirley Hewko-Parkinson Award in Community Health was first given out in 2015. The Shirley Hewko-Parkinson Memorial Award in Nursing was first awarded in 2018. For the 2023 awards, the chosen recipient of the second award was Janaya Borschneck, a Kerrobert student who is studying nursing at USask.
Borschneck is in her third year as a nursing student in the accelerated post-degree Bachelor of Science Nursing program. She learned about the awards named after the public health nurse through the College of Nursing scholarship page where she applied. Although Borschneck did not personally know Hewko-Parkinson, her grandparents Rod and Joan Dyck of Unity did.
Hewko-Parkinson was able to watch everyone’s children grow up, starting with first immunizations, to Grade 6 vaccinations and health clinics held for high school students. Apart from her work, Hewko-Parkinson was heavily involved in the Unity Community Resource Center, various breastfeeding programs and Kids in the Kitchen. She volunteered with the Air Cadets and Girl Guides, even after her own two daughters, Sarah and Zoe, had graduated from the programs.
The young nursing student has shown interest towards critical care, however has not decided what area of nursing she will pursue.
