Bernadet passed away peacefully in the Palliative Care Department of St. Paul’s Hospital on October 2nd, 2009. She will be dearly missed by her husband Edward, her family, friends and the UBC School of Nursing community.
Bernadet was a passionate and devoted nurse whose ambition was to have a lasting impact on nursing practice and care. Throughout her career, she pursued positions that would allow her to support nurses more effectively and make improvements in health care for patients.
Bernadet was always very active in professional nursing activities. In addition to serving on several RNABC (now CRNBC) committees, she was the president from 1983 to 1985. She was active in the Canadian Nurses Association, the Nurse Administrators Association of BC, the Canadian College of Health Services Executives, and she was on several hospital, university and community committees. She was on the board of BCIT, MDS Metro (now Life Line) and on many regional health board committees.
In 2002 she received the RNABC recognition Award for her valuable contributions to the nursing profession in BC and in 2003 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Health Care Leaders Association of BC.
In her career, Bernadet was most proud of her mentorship of others. Ultimately, all of her work was directed toward supporting nurses in practice.
The Registered Nurses Foundation of B.C. and the UBC School of Nursing are supporting donations towards a Bursary for Students in M. Bernadet Ratsoy’s name, C/0 The Registered Nurses Foundation of B.C., P.O. Box 33957 St. D, 2405 Pine Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 4L7.
Please read her Amazing Alumni Story.