From Undergrad to PhD; A Nursing Graduate’s Story

From not being convinced she wanted to be a nurse, Dr. Lindsey Vold (BSN’15, MN’17, PhD’25) has come a long way to achieve her most recent goal, earning a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing, with a focus on public health. And she’s done it all with the University of Saskatchewan (USask) College of Nursing.

With no nurses in her family, Vold didn’t know much about nursing before she enrolled in the USask Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program. All she knew was that she was about three years into an Arts and Science degree that really wasn’t grabbing her attention, and maybe another option would be a better fit.

But still, even once entering the BSN program, Vold was reluctant about nursing.

“I was ready to drop out in my first year, and thankfully I had a clinical instructor who told me, ‘this isn't all that nursing is, so just wait, stay in’. Thanks to her wise advice, I have completed my PhD, which is crazy,” said Vold.

Her passion really ramped up during her fourth year in the BSN program when she started learning about the social determinants of health. 

Before landing on public health, Vold tried several pathways in nursing to find her fit; first in rural medicine, then in maternity and NICU. But the pace and routine did not suit her. Where she did find herself more engaged was working at Saskatoon Sexual Health, a non-profit focused on sexual and reproductive health.

“I just loved my job there because I had coworkers who weren't only nurses, but people who were so committed to a core mission and vision and did things differently, not like a traditional clinic,” said Vold.

From there she went to work in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, which was another good match.

“I really love northern nursing. It's so much of a team effort and everyone's there to support each other,” she said.

After completing her undergraduate degree in nursing, Vold decided to go all in and do her USask Master of Nursing (MN) degree.

“I knew higher education might give me more job opportunities, especially if I wanted to not only work at the bedside, but in public health.”

During her MN program, she applied for the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship and gained some international experience while completing a term in East Africa.

After completing her MN, College of Nursing Professor Dr. Wanda Martin (PhD) reached out to Vold to see if she was interested in taking a course in situational analysis, which prompted Vold to apply to the PhD program under Professor Martin’s supervision.

Caption: Lindsey Vold at the community greenhouse project in the Northwest Territories. Credit: Submitted.

She circled back to her interest in northern nursing to focus her PhD research on a community greenhouse project in the Northwest Territories. The greenhouse was a project in partnership with a technology startup in Whitehorse, to retrofit a trailer for hydroponic growing using water as the growing medium to sidestep the frozen ground. Vold’s focus was on how a community-based organization navigates implementing a tech solution.

“I came from a community health perspective to know that pre-assessment is really important, and also quality assessment of what's working, what isn't, and next steps,” said Vold, noting that she hopes her work can help other communities be better prepared for similar projects.

She found the project was a good initiative, but some challenges made it difficult along the way. Finding certified technicians to handle the technical element and even finding niche replacement parts was difficult in such a remote community, so the development was more unstable than expected. 

“It might have been too uncertain for a community-based organization to spearhead that kind of project,” said Vold, noting the greenhouse is still going, but now runs only in the winter when vegetables are scarcer rather than the summer.

The path to completing her PhD was also interrupted as she was preparing her doctoral research proposal when the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Vold had to pivot to remote data collection initially, but she also threw herself into the pandemic response effort, landing a job as a public health nurse in the Northwest Territories.

“There were six of us trying to do COVID response for the Northwest Territories in the beginning,” said Vold.

“I had a great supervisor, Stephanie Gilbert, an Inuk nurse, and such an advocate for us and Indigenous people, a great role model of leading with empathy and expertise,” said Vold.

When she was able to safely continue her research, Vold stayed in the Northwest Territories to finish her data collection and has since been back often to work on a variety of projects, including those with a focus on youth and sexual health education.

Vold says that both the research and her experience working in a community compel her to continue to find new ways to do public health research in her future.

“I want to be focused on something that's going to have an impact, not only theoretical, but community-based research.”

She also aspires to continue working in harm reduction and toxic drug supply.

Calling herself “a Saskatchewan girl, born and bred,” Vold also aspires to continue contributing to her home province, crediting the support from the University of Saskatchewan College of Nursing for helping her find her path.

“I've met some great faculty that literally changed my life.”

Vold successfully defended her Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing dissertation, Situational Analysis of Local Food Production in a Northern Setting: A Holistic Nursing Perspective, on April 7.