More Than the Wound
When you think of wound care, what comes to your mind?
Is it the bandage you placed on a cut after a mishap in the kitchen yesterday?
The scrape you cleaned and covered after your child fell off the swing?
For Narinder, wound care is about much more than the wounds we can see.
“To treat wounds, you have to look at the whole patient before you look into the hole in the patient,” she says with a glint in her eye.
It’s a philosophy she has carried throughout a career spanning more than two decades. One that has taken her across countries, through hospitals, home health programs and specialized wound care roles. And one that ultimately brought her home to Surrey.
Today, Narinder is a Registered Nurse specializing in Wound, Ostomy and Continence care at the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre. It is a role that didn’t exist before she arrived last year.
“People call me a wound nerd,” she says with a smile. The nickname suits her.
A Passion that Found Its Purpose
As a new nursing graduate in 2001, Narinder moved to England after marrying her husband. It was there, working on a urology and surgical unit, that she first discovered the specialty that would end up shaping her career.
“I developed my passion for wound care,” she recalls. “In the UK we were called tissue viability nurses, and I had a great opportunity to learn about wounds. I fell in love with wounds.”
She moved back to British Columbia a few years later, committed to keep the momentum of her passion going.
“When I moved back, I told my manager during my interview, ‘One day, I will be a wound care clinician in this office.'”
Her manager saw her determination and potential. With support from leadership, Narinder completed her specialty education and officially stepped into wound care in 2009.
The rest, as she puts it, is history.
The Detective Behind the Dressing
But Narinder is quick to explain that wound care is rarely about bandages and dressings alone.
“Many things make it rewarding,” she says. “It’s almost like acting like you’re an investigator or detective. What caused this wound? Have we treated the underlying cause?”
For Narinder, every patient presents a puzzle to solve. Wound care is about much more than treating the wound itself. A patient may be managing diabetes, coping with depression, or navigating barriers that affect their ability to heal. Financial challenges, language barriers, limited access to resources, and other social factors can all influence recovery. Understanding the whole person is often just as important as understanding the wound.
“If we do not address the patient and the underlying cause, or patient adherence to the treatment plan, it can be challenging.”
That means listening to patients and looking beyond the wound itself. It means providing comprehensive education to nurses on various types of wounds, connecting patients with community resources and working alongside members of interdisciplinary teams from physicians to social workers, families and beyond. All of it is done with one goal in mind: empowering patients and helping them regain control of their health and quality of life.
“Wound care is very much patient-centred,” she says. “There is no one-size-fits-all. Every care plan is tailored to the person.”
Coming Home to Care
After years working across the Fraser Valley, Narinder was looking for an opportunity closer to home. When she learned a new wound care position was being created at Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre, she knew she had found
“I felt like it was a calling. It was time to serve my city.”
What she didn’t fully appreciate at the time was just how much of herself she would be able to bring to the role.
“Surrey is such a diverse place,” she says. “I feel blessed. Being trilingual, I am able to provide health literacy and education in patients’ own language where there is a language barrier.”
Fluent in English, Punjabi and Hindi, Narinder often finds herself connecting with patients in ways that go far beyond medical treatment.
“I will always ask, ‘Which language do you feel better in?'” The response is often immediate, and their faces light up.
Language barriers can be strenuous for a person’s care. For some patients, it means they no longer need to rely on family members to translate complex medical information. For Narinder, she is at ease knowing that a patient fully understands the treatment plan that has been tailored for them.
“When people understand why they have a wound, they get to understand that they are partners in their care,” she says. “It’s not a one-sided action. We will get there together.”
For Narinder, it’s a dream come true to be able to work at the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery, applying her craft and care for the people who walk through these doors. And in return, Surrey and the people south of the Fraser gained a passionate and empathetic wound nerd who will stop at nothing to make sure to heal the wounds that surround you.
