Bilingual employees rock! Why does Joan Wheatley-Bissoonrock? Because Joan has learned French and made providing services in French a priority throughout her career. Joan is a Public Health Nurse in St. Vital. She provides service to the French schools in the community and in doing so, has expanded on her French. She also facilitated the French parenting group Bébés, parents et gazouillements. She has taken a variety of French courses (and you can too! – contact WRHA French Language Services) and converses in the office at every opportunity. She jumps at the opportunity to use her French. Joan is proud to be able to offer services in French to immigrants who don’t speak English and to visit with French speaking clients in other community areas.
At 16 years old, Joan’s first job was cooking for 45 people during two months at a Child & Family Services children’s camp. She chose to pursue nursing as a career because it was the funded Céjep (community college in Quebec) program being offered that interested her the most. After completing the three-year nursing program at DawsonCollege in Montreal, Joan was granted a temporary license. She followed one immersion class and was then able to write the mandatory written and oral French exams. Joan later went on to complete her Bachelor of Nursing at the University of Ottawa.
Joan appreciates that nursing is a profession that allows you to do a multitude of different things. She has worked in maternity, post-op, pre-op teaching, surgery and as a float before moving to public health. When asked what her most significant accomplishment is, Joan jokes that she hasn’t had it yet. She does take pride in a hospital computer system that she helped to implement over a two year period.
Joan is the mother two girls, age 17 and 19. Neither plans to follow in Joan’s profession but she’s ok with that. Joan goes to the gym every morning. In her spare time, she likes to read and is part of the office book club.
Joan’s capacity to provide services in French to clients puts them at ease and allows them to express themselves in the language they are most comfortable with and WRHA French Language Services thinks she rocks.
Do you know a bilingual employee that rocks? We want to hear about it? Email