Yukon Nurses Alliance

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Join the Yukon Nurses Alliance to be at the forefront of nursing advocacy, community events, and member engagement efforts.

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Mission

Vision

Values

Principles

To strengthen nursing and healthcare in Yukon through advocacy, education, and connection—promoting excellence, influence, and professional profile.

A united and empowered nursing profession, leading
positive change in healthcare.

Representative: We represent all nursing professionals and embrace diversity, inclusion, and the full range of nursing roles and experiences.

Collaborative: We believe progress happens through partnership—working across professions, organizations, and communities with openness, respect and shared purpose.

Receptive: We communicate clearly and invite diverse perspectives, ensuring nurses and partners feel heard, respected, and valued.

Trustworthy: We act with honesty, consistency, and transparency, guided by integrity and focused on strengthening nursing and health rather than politics or personal interests.

Member-focused: We exist to serve our members, ensuring our programs and services respond to their evolving needs and priorities.

System orientated: Our work supports equitable, high-quality care and stronger, healthier communities across the Yukon.

Steward Resources Responsibly: Allocate time and funds where they have the most impact for
members and long-term organizational health

Build for the Future: Develop leadership and organizational capacity to ensure continuity.

Be Accountable: Be transparent in our decisions, open to feedback, and responsible for the
outcomes of our actions.

Learn More

Jessie Rushant, LPN

LPN Representative

Jessie, a born-and-raised Yukoner, came to nursing mid-life, midway through raising her two now-adult children. She graduated as a Licensed Practical Nurse from Yukon College’s LPN program in 2012 and has spent the majority of her nursing career caring for Yukoners throughout Whitehorse General Hospital ever since. She is currently permanently employed in the surgical services clinics, assisting the territory’s surgeons with their minor procedures, including casting and splinting, which utilizes her most recent achievement, an Advanced Specialty in Orthopedics. Over the years, Jessie has also worked at Whitehorse Correctional Centre, sat on numerous boards and committees and advocated for the territory’s LPNs as secretary for the now-defunct Yukon LPN Association. Jessie sees the Yukon Nurses Alliance’s unification of all of the territory’s nurse designations as an inspiring step in creating a stronger voice for the nursing profession and the territory’s patients.

We are looking for more LPN representation on our board and to provide a voice on our sub-committees! Fill out the nomination form on our website! https://www.yukonnursesalliance.com/contact-8

#NorthernNursing #YukonNurses #YNA #YukonHealthcare

Dawn Lammer, BSc, BScN, RN

Treasurer

Dawn is a Registered Nurse who graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 2003. She has resided in the Yukon since 1991 and previously worked in the environmental field. Her nursing experience has been solely in the Yukon. She initially worked as a new nursing graduate at Carcross Health Centre and has over 20 years of experience at Whitehorse General Hospital in the pediatric, medical, and surgical units. She was a contract investigator for YRNA's Discipline Committee. Dawn also taught at Yukon College/Yukon University for 6 years. She is currently working on the Rapid Response Team at Whitehorse Home Care. She will begin coursework to earn her nursing specialization in wounds, ostomy and continence (NSWOCC) in the new year. Dawn joined YNA to develop an organization for all nurses working in the Yukon, across different designations and workplaces, to strengthen nursing and healthcare in the territory.

There’s often confusion about the roles of a regulator, an association, and a union in nursing but each plays a completely different part in supporting both nurses and the public.

Here’s the breakdown 👇

REGULATOR → Protects the public.
Sets education + registration requirements, enforces standards of practice and ethics, ensures continuing competence, investigates complaints, and maintains the public registry of license holders.

ASSOCIATION (YNA!) → Supports and advances the profession.
Associations advocate for nurses, offer education and career development, promote research, build professional community, and celebrate members’ achievements.

UNION → Protects workers’ employment rights.
Negotiates wages, benefits, and working conditions; processes grievances; supports workplace issues; and promotes safe, fair labor practices.

Neysa Laskiewicz, MN-PHCNP, BScN, NP

Neysa is a Nurse Practitioner working in primary care at Constellation Health Centre. She began her nursing career in 2011 as a new graduate Community Health Nurse in northern Ontario, serving several fly-in communities until 2017. She then returned to the University of Toronto to complete her Master of Nursing and Nurse Practitioner certification. As a new graduate NP, Neysa relocated to Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, where she practiced for three years before moving to Whitehorse in 2023 to continue her commitment to northern nursing. In addition to her primary care work, she has a strong interest in regenerative aesthetic medicine and is the owner of Alpine Glow Wellness. Neysa joined the Yukon Nurses Alliance to advocate for progress in the territory and support the advancement of nursing practice in the North.

The YNA Chair:

Sarah Harrison, BScN, RN, CCSNE

Sarah Harrison is a Registered Nurse, educator, and northern health leader with 17 years of experience across British Columbia, New Zealand, and the Yukon. She began her Yukon journey in 2016 on what was meant to be a two-month contract, and has been proudly rooted in the territory ever since. Sarah has built her career in pediatrics, critical care, nursing informatics, simulation, and clinical education, and currently serves as the Clinical Coordinator for the Practical Nursing program at Yukon University. She is a candidate for the Master of Health Leadership and Policy in Clinical Education at the University of British Columbia, deepening her expertise in nursing leadership, education, and system-level improvement. Sarah has served for six years on the Yukon Registered Nurses Association (YRNA) Complaints Committee, three years as President of the Copper Ridge Neighbourhood Association. She has contributed to multiple committees and boards in both British Columbia and New Zealand. She has a longstanding commitment to accountability, public protection, community development, and advancing the profession through strong leadership. When she’s not working or studying, she can be found exploring the outdoors with Khione, her spirited four-year-old Old Crow rescue dog, who accompanies her on runs, road trips, and loves a little forest parkour.

Thank you to every nurse who both completed our survey AND spread the word to their colleagues!

Over five weeks this fall, the Yukon Nurses Alliance launched a 17-question survey to better understand the realities, priorities, and needs of nurses across the territory. We received 170 responses representing nearly 25% of Yukon’s nursing workforce, including RNs, LPNs, and NPs working across hospital, community, continuing care, public health, education, and leadership settings.

Your voices have given us direction, grounded in the wants and needs of Yukon Nurses.

YNA Survey Results

Your voices have given us a direction founded on the wants and needs of Yukon Nurses.

💛 What We Heard

1. Advocacy matters most.
2. Education and professional growth are deeply valued.
3. Workplace supports and culture are key.
4. Nurses want education delivered in practical ways.
5. Many nurses are ready to join the YNA.

📣 What This Means for Our Work

Your feedback directly informs how the YNA sets priorities for 2026 and beyond.
Your voices tell us that nurses want:

• Strong, consistent advocacy
• High-quality and accessible education
• Supportive workplaces and healthier teams
• More opportunities to be heard
• More nursing leadership in system change
• A unified professional community across the Yukon

We hear you. And we are committed to carrying this forward.

We’ve posted a breakdown of the survey findings on our website.

Visit: www.yukonnursesalliance.com

Join the YNA to continue to help us advocate for nurses in the Yukon.

Your input will continue shaping the direction of the YNA. Together, we can build the nursing future Yukoners deserve. 💛

The YNA introductions!

Meet: April Goulin, BScN, RN

RN Representative

April Goulin is a Registered Nurse who graduated from the University of Windsor in 2019 and started her nursing career in a rural Ontario emergency department. She then worked as a Primary Healthcare Nurse in Yukon communities and as an Immunization Practice Consultant and manager with the Yukon Immunization Program. April more recently worked as the National Immunization Program Manager for the Department of National Defence. April is a Master of Nursing candidate at Athabasca University. She is completing her thesis research, which focuses on nursing practice in rural, remote, and isolated areas of Yukon and BC. April is committed to health research, as she is engaged with the Understanding Yukoners’ Attitudes Towards Vaccines research project and rural nursing education research with Athabasca University. April joined YNA to advance the interests of the nursing profession within the territory and to support its long-term development.

Introducing the YNA team!

First up: Laura Gray-Ellis, MN-PHCNP, BScN, NP

NP Representative

Laura is a Nurse Practitioner at Constellation Health Center, working in Primary Care. Her nursing background is rooted in remote community practice, beginning in Churchill, MB, in 2009, where she spent five years serving the community. She then continued her work in northern nursing for the next decade in Cambridge Bay, NU. She completed her Master's in nursing, Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner in 2021 at Western University. She relocated to Whitehorse in 2022 and began working with the team at Constellation HC. She joined the Yukon Nurses Alliance, recognizing the growing need for strong nursing advocacy in the territory. She looks forward to supporting YNA’s growth and collaborating with nurses across Yukon.

Happy National Nursing Students Week!

This year’s theme is “Vital to Our Systems."

Nursing students aren’t just the future of healthcare; they’re the energy, curiosity, and heart that keep our system learning, adapting, and moving forward every single day.

To all the Yukon nurses out there:

What advice do you wish you could give your student-self?
What bit of student curiosity recently influenced your practice?

Drop it below so today’s students can learn from those who walked the path before them and recognize that their curiosity does have lasting effects on the environments they learn in. 💛👇

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