U of T nurse practitioner student aims to break barriers in new Scarborough program

Lakshmi Asokan remembers how difficult Canada’s health-care system felt to her family when her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. Her parents, immigrants from Sri Lanka, faced financial and language barriers while trying to find appropriate care.

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Growing up, I saw how overwhelming the health-care system can be for families.

That experience helped steer Lakshmi and her three sisters toward medical careers. “We had very little support at the time, so I wanted to help other families similar to mine,” she said.

Lakshmi completed an accelerated nursing degree at the University of Toronto and spent three years as a registered nurse at North York General Hospital, working in pediatrics and the neonatal intensive care unit. She is now joining the first nurse practitioner class at the university’s new Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health, or SAMIH.

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There was definitely some financial challenges and some language barriers there that made it more difficult for them to access the appropriate care they needed for my grandma.

Thirty students with ties to Scarborough will enter the two-year program. Each will complete a community placement, and some will train at a new nurse practitioner-led clinic on the Scarborough campus. Robyn Stremler, dean of the university’s Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, said Ontario needs more nurse practitioners to provide primary care and help people access services.

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Ontario needs more nurse practitioners who can provide primary health care and help people access the care that they need, so that’s really why we wanted to expand our nurse practitioner program here to the Scarborough and eastern GTA.

The program also aims to build a local workforce. Stremler said people who train in a particular area often remain there to practise. For Lakshmi, studying in Scarborough has a personal meaning because it is where she grew up. She hopes to learn more about the community, health equity and the barriers local residents face, with the longer-term goal of opening her own clinic there.

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There’s something very special about being able to give back to the community that has shaped my journey in such a big way.