Social and environmental determinants of health

Abiola Akinremi’s passion for humanitarian work started when she was a teenager. Having lived in Canada since the age of six, she returned to her birth country of Nigeria to attend high school and says the experience made her realize how fortunate she was to have grown up in a country with an abundance of resources available to her. 

I remember my aunt once telling me: “Nursing isn’t just sitting at the bedside holding someone’s hand.” She said it mockingly, as if I didn’t have what it took to be a nurse. Perhaps there is some truth to her impressions of me, since I am not drawn to the adrenaline-producing emergency department, or the intensity of the operating room.

Throughout the pandemic, telemedicine and virtual visits have become common ways for members of the transgender and non-binary community to access primary care services, including gender-affirming hormone therapy.