Taking the time, differently
For Aux trois sentiers clinical nurse Staphania Bastien, the path toward palliative care unfolded gradually, through experience… and contrast.
At the end of her studies, she had envisioned a very different career path: neonatal care. She began her career at CHU Sainte-Justine, where she spent two years working in neonatal intensive care.
It was a demanding environment, emotionally heavy, where every situation carried weight — sometimes difficult to bear, especially when you are not a parent yourself. Night shifts, distance from loved ones, constant intensity… Little by little, she felt the need for a change.
A new chapter began at Hôpital Pierre-Le Gardeur. There, she joined the hematology-oncology unit and discovered palliative care for the very first time.
And that is where something clicked.
Within that unit, she found a strong team, a well-structured environment, and above all, a different approach: a more human connection, closer to patients and their families.
“I felt like I was doing something truly meaningful.”
She learned the language of palliative care — how to explain, simplify, reassure. How to recognize refractory symptoms, understand terminal secretions, delirium, respiratory distress. She grew passionate about it. But over time, another reality caught up with her.
The staffing shortages.
The lack of time.
Care delivered at a relentless pace.
In the hospital setting, some essential gestures often fall by the wayside: mouth care, repositioning patients, the small acts of comfort that make all the difference at the end of life.
“Everything moves too fast.”
After working for a staffing agency, notably at Cité-de-la-Santé, and following the Québec government’s decision to end the use of private nursing agencies, Staphania found herself at a crossroads.
She knew one thing for certain: she did not want to return to the public healthcare system as she had known it.
She was searching for a place where empathy would not come second. A place where palliative care could be practiced in all its depth.
That is how she discovered Aux trois sentiers. And the difference was immediate.
Here, people take the time.
The time to make a patient comfortable.
The time to speak with families.
The time to do things properly.
At home, care regains its meaning.
“It’s night and day compared to the hospital.”
At Aux trois sentiers, she found what she had been looking for: a deeply human approach, where every detail matters, and where patients and their loved ones remain at the heart of everything
She feels she belongs here. At home.
She also values the space given to clinical reflection, conversations among colleagues, and the continuous improvement of practices. A committed, attentive team that is always striving to do better.
But working in palliative care also means carrying a significant emotional burden. Staphania is deeply aware of this. She describes herself as someone who absorbs a great deal — the stories, the emotions, the silences.
To maintain balance, she found her own outlet: writing.
Putting words to what she experiences, to the stories she witnesses, allows her to release some of that emotional weight. To preserve the memories, but also the beauty within them.
“I write about the beautiful moments, so I can focus on the positive.”
In her personal life, she is also a deeply involved caregiver for her mother — a role that further deepens her understanding of what families go through.
Today, Staphania cannot imagine herself anywhere else.
Because at Aux trois sentiers, she can practice nursing the way she believes it should be practiced: with rigor, with heart, and above all, with the time needed to support patients and families as humanely as possible.
