Healthcare Hero: Humairea Shairzai

Healthcare Hero Humairea Shairzai is a nurse clinician from Laval, Quebec. Humairea works in the Emergency Department, and has also worked in many specialities such as cardiology, neurosurgery, and digestive surgery during her career. In her current role, she is treating patients in the Emergency Department. Like many healthcare workers, her own mental well-being has been affected due to increasing concerns for the health of her patients and the potential risk of impacting her family members by working with individuals who have COVID-19.

Outside of her nurse clinician role and studying full-time as a university student, Humairea is the Honorary Secretary for the Quebec and Maritimes Health Board. She has helped to support flu vaccination campaigns, and has provided informational support about COVID-19 to families with language barriers. Time management has been an important factor for Humairea, as she practices many roles to enrich the local community.

Humairea’s greatest lesson from this time is the importance of good communication to support multidisciplinary teams. Her advice, to everyone, grounded in her experience as a healthcare worker, is to continue to follow the regulations in place by public health teams. She reminds us that the more careful we are, the faster we can emerge from the pandemic – continue to protect yourself and others by washing your hands and wearing a mask, and support your mental health by connecting safely with friends and family on the phone. To support her health and look after herself, Humairea enjoys being physically active and meditating.

As part of the Healthcare Heroes initiative, we will be featuring healthcare workers from the Jamat until Sunday, July 11. Stay tuned for more!