NURSE TO KNOW

A young career in high gear

Not content to stay in a first job that didn’t fit, Thomas Froh pressed on
and found a nursing specialty he loves

T he moment he heard that the XXI Olympic Winter Games

would take place in Vancouver, Thomas Froh knew he wanted
to volunteer there as a health-care professional. So although the
Games were two years away, he wasted no time in applying.
Unfortunately, his application ended up in the wrong bin,
and he was offered a position maintaining the ski track. “That
meant I would be on my snowboard with a shovel,” the 26-year-
old explains. He could handle that task because he keeps fit
and participates in a variety of sports. But he reminded the
interviewers that he was a nurse and asked that his application
be redirected.
“I waited and waited. I thought I had thrown any volunteering
opportunity out the window. Finally, I got an e-mail from the
medical team.” And in February of 2010, he found himself
working as a nurse in the Vancouver polyclinic, one of two
multidisciplinary health-care facilities set up especially for
the Olympics (the second was at Whistler Mountain). “Pretty
fantastic” is how this 2007 graduate of the Nursing Education
Program of Saskatchewan describes the experience. “I loved
being part of that team — meeting so many nurses and health-
Thomas Froh works in the emergency department of the Regina General Hospital.
care professionals and having the chance to work with such
high-level athletes.”
Froh marvels at the range of opportunities for nurses. Yet the courses and, as a result, finished his degree in three years instead
profession wasn’t even on his radar as a career option when he of four. Despite this accelerated pace, he managed to become
graduated from high school in Regina in 2002. Instead, he spent academic coordinator, and later co-chair, of the Regina Nursing
two years at university studying chemistry and working part time Students’ Society and to serve as a member of the Saskatchewan
as a pharmacy assistant. That experience convinced him that he Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) Dean of
“didn’t want to work with clients in that discipline. Pharmacists Nursing selection committee. In 2007, he received the SIAST John
do great work, but I discovered I wanted a more intimate Currie Leadership Award.
involvement with people.” Greater challenges awaited Froh in his first year after
His cousin, who was beginning her first year of practice as an graduation. “In school, you work as a team and always have
RN, challenged his notion that nursing was for women, and he nursing colleagues around you. Then you graduate, get a job and
decided to apply to a BScN program. “For someone who knew you’re navigating on your own.” One way he coped was by getting
next to nothing about nursing, I was extremely lucky,” Froh says. involved with Nursing the Future, a national non-profit organization
"I just went with it for the first six months and then began to see founded in Saskatchewan by Judy Boychuk Duchscher, who
Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region

how well suited I was to the profession.”
With clinical hours added to classroom and lab time, Froh
found the program far more demanding than he had anticipated,
even though he was able to cover off some electives with his
two years of university chemistry. “I’d assumed chemistry was
more difficult than nursing, but a BScN is quite the undertaking,”
he admits. Nonetheless, he chose a fast track by taking summer
wanted to provide guidance to recent graduates as they entered
the workforce. On nursingthefuture.ca, the group cites the
difficulties facing new hospital nurses: worsening staff shortages,
high patient acuity and the dwindling number of seasoned nurses
who can share expertise.
Nursing the Future has been “a huge source of motivation,”
says Froh, who has given support to other new nurses and

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received lots of it himself from more senior colleagues. He held
several positions with the group, including website development
coordinator and director, and he remains a sustaining member
today. The group’s survival guide for
recent graduates advises them to stay
in their first jobs for at least a year. He
explains: “If you don’t like your job,
maybe the problem is just the high
stress of your first year in nursing. No
matter where you start, it’s a good
idea to work through the challenges
you face.”
Froh confesses that he didn’t
take this advice, however. Despite
having “really good mentors” at his
first position on an oncology/internal
medicine unit, he just didn’t connect
with the job. “I really struggled. In
my mind, the pace was too slow.
It was very busy, but not the right
kind of busy.” Ultimately, after long
discussions with Boychuk Duchscher
and other mentors, he left his first
job because he had found a more
satisfying work environment.
Emergency nursing had never
appealed to Froh when he was
in school (he thought it would be
“too unpredictable”), but a former
pharmacy co-worker, whose husband
was an emergency nurse, had repeatedly encouraged Froh to
shadow her husband at work. “I finally agreed and audited him for
a shift. I loved it! The organized chaos, the diversity of the patients
— I realized, yes, this was exactly what I wanted.”
So in 2008, less than a year after starting his first job, Froh
joined the emergency department of the Regina General
Hospital. “I never looked back,” he says. “I like the rapid pace, the
spontaneity, the thinking on your toes. Things change quickly, and
you have the opportunity to see the effects of your interventions
almost immediately.” In 2010, he achieved CNA certification in
emergency nursing.
He identifies some of the more subtle challenges of his job:
“We save patients’ lives, and then we aren’t needed anymore. Yet
sometimes we want to know if our effort made a difference. The
lack of followup is difficult for us.”
Froh sits on the Releasing Time to Care committee, which aims
to reduce the staff’s clerical and non-nursing work so that more
time can be spent with patients. He has helped with initiatives to
improve the handling of medications, communication of patient
status and shift handover.
Emergency nursing was good preparation for working with the
large interdisciplinary team in the Athletes’ Village in Vancouver.
Dr. Jack Taunton, the chief medical officer for the Games,
wanted to limit the burden on local hospitals, so the polyclinic
was staffed with a full complement of health-care professionals,
including dentists and optometrists, and “every service you
could imagine,” says Froh. “You would walk into the therapy
section, and an athlete was being worked on by a chiropractor,
sports MD and massage therapist, all working in tandem and
bouncing ideas off each other.” He was impressed by how
efficiently these professionals worked together.
“I like the rapid pace, the spontaneity, the
thinking on your toes. Things change quickly,
and you have the opportunity to see the effects
of your interventions almost immediately.”
The Vancouver polyclinic, located on the ground floor of one
of the condos housing the athletes, featured a three-bed trauma
bay, full lab and pharmacy, with CT and MRI scanners stationed
on semi-trailers behind the building. Most of the time, Froh
worked the overnight shift, when things were quiet, and he
would find himself treating minor ailments and sports injuries.
But just being in the polyclinic was an eye-opener, he says. “The
dentists and optometrists weren’t just treating acute conditions.
They were doing checkups for athletes, many of whom come
from countries with no medical coverage. The dentists helped
them out with mouth guards and root canals, and an optometrist
was handing out glasses and safety eyewear.”
The Olympics inspired Froh to ramp up his own activities as an
athlete. This winter, he’s devoted most of his time to a CrossFit
program, and he’ll be running a half-marathon in Florida. For the
past two summers, he has raced in several sprint and Olympic
distance triathlons, and he plans to add mountain-biking and
trail-running races next summer. Two other passions claim his
spare time: travel (he recently returned from trips to Europe and
Morocco) and photography (“I try to spend as much time behind
the lens as I can”).
Froh is thinking about furthering his education and applying
to become a nurse practitioner. He considers himself fortunate,
pointing out that some university graduates find themselves in
mediocre jobs and then spend years working up to something
more satisfying. In contrast, he is fully engaged in his work and
looking forward to the future. 
ANN SILVERSIDES IS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST IN PERTH, ONTARIO.
March 2011 33
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