Carole Rhéaume Award

CAROLE RHÉAUME AWARD – awarded to a nurse who exemplifies Carole Rhéaume’s passion for, and contribution to, patients with infertility. Carole was an exemplary fertility nurse who worked at Ovo Clinic in Montreal. She was a tireless patient advocate, a caring nurse and a true leader. Carole spearheaded numerous initiatives to improve patient care and access to care. Carole was tragically killed in the winter of 2015 when she stopped her car on the side of the road to help another motorist who had veered off track.

The Carole Rhéaume Award comprises of a sponsorship of up to $4,000 CAD for a registered nurse to attend an international conference in reproductive medicine in the 18 months following receipt of the award. The Award is made possible by the support of EMD Serono, through an educational grant.

2024 Winner - Bethany Wright, RN

Bethann Wright is a distinguished fertility nurse whose remarkable contributions have greatly impacted reproductive medicine at the Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine (PCRM) in Burnaby, BC. Since joining PCRM in 2011 as the IVF Nurse Coordinator, Bethann has excelled in managing complex third-party fertility programs, including donor oocytes, donor sperm, and surrogacy, particularly supporting international and LGBTQ patients. Her deep understanding of Health Canada regulations and international fertility care has been crucial in ensuring seamless patient experiences. Bethann’s most notable achievement is the establishment and ongoing leadership of the PCRM Support Group, initiated in 2012. Recognizing the emotional toll of infertility, she created this group to provide a supportive community where patients can share experiences and receive emotional guidance. Her adept transition of the group to virtual meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic ensured continued support for patients. Her efforts have significantly enhanced patient satisfaction and reduced anxiety. Her clinical skills, including transvaginal ultrasound scanning and intrauterine inseminations (IUI), are complemented by her comprehensive patient education and emotional support. Prior to PCRM, Bethann gained valuable experience at fertility centers in the Caribbean and the UK, enriching her practice with a global perspective. Bethann also actively engages in professional development and public advocacy, participating in training and awareness initiatives like the Vancouver Pride Parade. Her exceptional dedication, expertise, and compassionate care make Bethann a deserving recipient of the Carole Rhéaume Award recognizing her significant contributions to enhancing the patient experience and advancing fertility nursing.

2023 Winner - Paula Anderson, RN

Paula has dedicated her professional life to improving and enhancing the patient's experience. She helped create Olive Fertility's patient-centered approach to care by being an active member of the working group that helped develop our Mission and Vision statements. She lives the perspective of putting the patient at the centre of care and deeply understands what patients need and hope to receive from care. She continuously goes out of her way to help patients navigate through difficult fertility journeys. It is this dedication and deep compassion that led to her becoming our first IVF Nurse Educator. Paula, on her own accord, started our Patient Support Group. In 2010, Paula identified the need for more local support and partnered with a Clinical Counselor to start in-person monthly support group meetings. Paula has also enhanced clinical practice in our field. She has held several roles in our Centre including Nurse Manager, Gestational Surrogacy Coordinator, IVF Nurse Coordinator and now, currently, as our only IVF Nurse Coordinator. She has a deep clinical knowledge of our field. She also, however, has participated in research throughout her career. Currently, she is actively involved in study from the University of British Columbia that explores patients attitudes through various stages of an IVF cycle. Paula has also presented at the CFAS Annual Meeting where she spoke about her research in gestational surrogacy.

2022 Winner - Cecile Palomares, RN

Cecile began in REI nursing at the CReATe Fertility Centre in 1995, 28 years ago. There are very few nurses in Canada who have devoted themselves to working in the field of nursing for that many years and have done so in such an outstanding manner. One of the critical aspects of a large fertility centre, particularly in such a vast country as Canada, is to provide care for patients who live in areas remote from the clinic, where high tech assisted reproductive care is not readily available. Cecile identified a critical need for these patients to receive care and enhance communication directly with patients and also the local clinics they were attending. This was the genesis of the ‘Satellite Care Program’. Since that time, Cecile has developed this program to help patients who attend over 10 clinics remote to CReATe, as well as to those patients in even more remote areas and she has trained many other nurses at CReATe in how to provide this type of nursing care. Cecile brings nurses from these Satellite clinics on a regular basis to train and learn more about the care their patients will receive when they come to CReATe for ART care and how to optimize communication between their satellite clinics and CReATe. Cecile, as the founder and leader of this program, has significantly improved thousands and thousands of patients’ access to care over these years and continues to do this on a daily basis.

2021 Winner - Maja Smrzlic, RN

Maja Smrzlic completed her baccalaureate degree in Nursing with honours at Ryerson University in 2007. She always had a passion for women’s health, which led to her starting her career as a labour and delivery nurse at Sunnybrook Health Sciences in Toronto. During this time, she completed the Patient Centered Care Certificate course. Her patients shared their stories and struggles with fertility, sparking her interest in reproductive endocrinology. In 2011, she became a fertility nurse at CReATe Fertility Centre where she gained an abundance of knowledge in this area of science. At this post, she was responsible for the embryo donation program. In 2012, Maja completed her ASRM Nurse Certificate Course in REI. She started working at ONE Fertility in Burlington in 2014, where great mentors inspired her to step out of her comfort zone, work hard, share her ideas, and think ‘outside of the box’. Her role quickly expanded as she took on more responsibilities at the clinic including developing clinical policies; helping to prepare the clinic for major inspections; launching various quality improvement initiatives; and developing new processes and programs. Maja has managed the government-funded IVF waitlist since the program began. In 2019, she obtained the Leadership of Assisted Reproduction in Clinical Setting Certificate from York University. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Maja was instrumental is forming new processes. She is currently working on developing patient educational content for the clinic website, as helping her colleagues and being an advocate for her patients is immensely important to her. This year, while still working at ONE Fertility, she accepted a part-time clinical instruction position for the RN program with Humber College.

[2020 Winner - Not applicable]

2019 Winner - Wendy Baker, RN

Wendy completed her Bachelor of Applied Science in Nursing in 1972 at UBC. She then dedicated herself to nursing working from 1972 to 1995 in women’s health, as an antenatal nurse initially. She then worked in women’s health clinics and clinics for at-risk youth across BC. In 1995 Wendy joined Drs. Al Yuzpe and Margo Fluker as a founding nurse at the Genesis Fertility Clinic in Vancouver. She worked tirelessly helping infertility patients and developing BC’s first donor sperm program. For the next 20 years Wendy helped thousands of women and couples needing donor sperm reach their dreams of having a family. Wendy created the donor sperm program, worked with Health Canada on its accreditation procedures, and helped develop practice guidelines locally and nationally. Now at Olive Fertility Centre, Wendy continues to run the donor sperm program and has recently be part of helping with trans-reproductive care at Olive. Wendy organized Olive’s role in the Vancouver Pride Parade since they first participated. Wendy is more than just an amazing worker, advocate and visionary for fertility care and donor sperm access. She also cares deeply about each patient she sees. She answers calls and emails 7 days a week. Wendy will drop medications off at her patient’s homes. Wendy will go beyond all clinic and patient expectations every single day.

2018 Winner - Eileen McMahon, RN(EC), MN, PNC(C)

Eileen graduated from the University of Toronto with a baccalaureate degree in Nursing Science, a Masters in Nursing,and a post-Master’s Nurse Practitioner degree. She has also successfully obtained her Extended Class qualification and holds specialty certification in Perinatal Nursing from the Canadian Nurses Association. She is a Nurse Practitioner at Mount Sinai Fertility and an Adjunct Lecturer in the Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Eileen was awarded a Mount Sinai Hospital Research Award in 2011 and is actively involved in all aspects of fertility nursing, but focuses primarily on fertility preservation and counselling. She also has an interest in gender inclusive care.

Eileen is an active member of the CFAS Nurses Special Interest Group, the Fertility Preservation Special Interest Group, and is a member of the Board of Directors. Eileen is helping to lead a Nurse Education Project Team in developing national fertility nurse competencies and this is a joint venture between CFAS and ASRM.

2017 Winner - Catherine Dwyer, RN (1956 - 2020)

Catherine “Cathie” Dwyer graduated from the Registered Nursing Diploma Program at Humber College in 1981 and began her nursing career in surgical oncology, gynecology, neurology and medicine. She found her passion in women’s health beginning with labour and delivery, where she worked for 15 years, before realizing her true calling of reproductive endocrinology and infertility nursing. Cathie has cared for fertility patients for 17 years and as Team Leader she manages day to day operations and liaises with a multidisciplinary team to ensure staff and patient safety, satisfaction and efficiency. Cathie has won multiple awards including a clinical practice award, a nursing exchange award for a poster at a nursing conference, an award of excellence, a preceptor award, and an award for scoring the highest on a test of fertility knowledge. Cathie is a role model in terms of continuing education (educational rounds, webinars, conferences, certificate courses) which she actively seeks out, and she has successfully obtained her Perinatal Nursing Certification through the Canadian Nurses Association and passed the ASRM Nurse Certificate Course in REI. Cathie is also an active member of a number of societies including CFAS, SOGC, ASRM, and RNAO. In fact, Cathie was the Secretary for the CFAS NSIG from 2013-2015. Cathie also leads and/or participates in a variety of quality improvement initiatives and is always eager to join internal hospital committees. Cathie is approachable and extremely knowledgeable, an absolute asset to REI nursing.

2016 Winner - Brenda McFalls, RN

Brenda McFalls is a registered nurse with 25 years’ experience in the field of Women’s Health and Reproductive Medicine. Currently Brenda is the Coordinator of The Fertility Clinic, Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit and Medical Genetics Program in South Western Ontario at London Health Sciences Centre, Victoria Hospital in London Ontario, Canada.

Brenda has participated in focus groups and workshops with the Assisted Human Reproduction Agency and Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society with a focus on relevant legislation, policy development and the changing face of the industry. She is an active member of the Canadian Fertility & Andrology Society, involved in the Nurses Special Interest Group, with participation on the Education Committee and Standards Committee. She also sits on the Women’s Care Council, the Women’s Care Program Ethics Committee, The Fertility Clinic Quality Care/ Patient Safety Committee and Public Relations Committee.

Highlights of her career include: being an invited guest to Saudi Arabia to operationalize a Fertility Clinic and teach the staff the fundamentals of reproductive medicine and fertility treatment; participating in national advisory boards for the pharmaceutical industry; development of the Nurse Training System affiliated with Merck; organizing and chairing a yearly, accredited CME program for referring physicians titled, Advancing Wellness in Reproductive Health and various public speaking events.