Long-time RNAO member Doreen O’Sullivan (seated) was sworn in as a municipal councillor for North Grenville in December. The RN campaigned on a platform to improve sidewalks, bike paths and trails to encourage citizens to be active. 

O’Sullivan was a member of North Grenville’s active transportation board as a citizen. She attended meetings and shared her views on traffic, speed and safety in the area. She says, eventually, people began to tell her that she should run for council. So she did. 

A feature on nurses who became politicians was included in the Sept/Oct 2018 issue of RNJ (From Practice to Politics), and like those political counterparts, O’Sullivan believes her experience as an RN will help her in this new phase of her career. 

“It’s like an extension of being a nurse,” she says. “I’m advocating for people and trying to make a healthier community.” 

O’Sullivan worked in a variety of positions at Ottawa Hospital over more than four decades as an RN. She says her work in quality and patient safety is especially helpful because she is used to looking at the evidence, and conducting needs assessments. She’s seen how evidence and technology have changed over her career, and believes both are vital to improve local communities.