Ingrid Hakanson, Professional Practice Leader for Respiratory Therapy

Ingrid started in the leadership position about seven months ago. “In my role, I help define and promote standards of practice, aid in staff professional development, and implement evidence-based practice,” she explains. “I provide education and bedside guidance here at Richmond, and other RT leaders at Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and provincially.” With Richmond Hospital being a smaller site, Ingrid says there is a wonderful family feel to it. “Many of the staff already knew who I was and everyone from the bedside to senior leadership. Everyone has extended a hand to make me feel welcome and help me learn. I can also see how much every other profession values the Richmond RT team, and they have such incredible support from all levels of VCH leadership.”

Ingrid has been an RT for almost fifteen years and describes it as an ‘incredibly dynamic, exciting and rewarding career’. “I’ve worked my entire career at VCH both as a bedside RT and as a frontline leader,” she says. “VCH is so exciting to work for because we care for the most complex and diverse patient populations in the province. There are so many opportunities to learn every day, and I get to work with a brilliant interdisciplinary team, many of whom are leaders in their fields.”

As a leader, Ingrid loves to witness how much the RT practice has grown and become more complex. “As a result, I’m always learning together with my colleagues,” she says. “I also love how much quick critical thinking in the moment is required in this profession. It keeps the mind sharp and you get to solve puzzles and mysteries as a regular part of the job.”

Ingrid was working in a research lab when she learned of the RT profession through a friend. “He started talking about his job and I knew right away that this would be a good fit for me. Just three months later, I filled out an application for the RT program at TRU (Thompson River University),” she says. “I felt that I would be happier in a profession where I could more directly help others and see the results in real-time.”

Ingrid tells us that there are so many innovations happening in critical care within VCH and RTs are often instrumental to these initiatives. “VCH is a Canadian leader in the treatment of severe traumatic brain-injured patients, and VGH (Vancouver General Hospital) is the only hospital in Canada to have achieved gold level status with the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO),” she says. “Dynamic patient populations such as these mean that exciting things happen every day, but my inspirational moments come from being a frontline leader for the VGH and Richmond teams and seeing the incredible work that they do.”

As a leader, education is a big part of Ingrid’s role at Richmond Hospital, both for RTs and inter-professionally. “I stay on top of emerging practice and technology so we can continually develop and improve our practice,” she says. “In addition, I have discussions with the team about their complex patients and help brainstorm strategies with them. VCH also has an incredible team that values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and uses this lens in everything we do as clinicians and leaders.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the RT profession to the world stage and highlighted the essential and highly specialized work that these healthcare professionals do. “While it has brought many challenges, it is so rewarding to see how the VCH team has risen to the occasion together,” says Ingrid. “The pandemic has also changed the way we do almost every task in our jobs, and we have been able to implement changes quickly as new information comes to light. It certainly is a unique time to be an RT!”

A fun fact about Ingrid is that she is a house music DJ and singer in her spare time! “I am dreaming of a time when I can play for a big crowd again!”

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