Maddison Paetz

About

Maddison Paetz received her Bachelor of Nursing in 2012 from University of Calgary, where she began her nursing career in emergency and critical care settings. She later became a critical care travel nurse, working across Canada in a variety of high-acuity environments throughout multiple provinces and territories, including experience in flight nursing and rural and remote healthcare. Through these experiences, Maddison developed a strong understanding of the realities, pressures, and complexities faced by healthcare providers working within demanding healthcare systems.

Over time, she began to recognize the growing need for nursing education to better prepare students for the realities of modern healthcare practice, particularly surrounding provider wellbeing, risk, resilience, and systems-level challenges. This inspired her transition into academia and nursing education in 2016. In 2021, she began pursuing her Master of Nursing at University of Calgary, where she specialized in healthcare systems leadership, nursing education, and healthcare workforce sustainability.

While completing graduate studies, Maddison continued working in emergency nursing and expanded her experience into addictions and mental health. These experiences deepened her interest in understanding the lived experience of healthcare providers and the impact healthcare work can have on mental health, wellbeing, burnout, and overall quality of life. Her graduate and independent research has focused on healthcare workforce sustainability, occupational risk in healthcare, human factors, provider safety, planetary health, and the importance of supporting healthcare providers within increasingly complex systems.

Maddison has since settled in the Comox Valley, where she spends much of her time outdoors enjoying the ocean, mountains, and nature. Her connection to the natural environment strongly informs her work and interests, reinforcing her belief that environmental and planetary health are inseparable from human health and wellbeing. She is passionate about promoting sustainable healthcare practices and advancing the role nurses play in protecting the health of communities, land, and oceans for future generations.