Goodbye Pat, Hello Mélie and Teresa

Our hospital greets the New Year with a new director and new administrative assistant. Mėlie De Champlain (left) is Powell River Hospital’s new director. Teresa Shaw (above left) takes over as administrative assistant from Pat van Schaik (above right) who has retired.

The new director is Mélie De Champlain, from Quebec by way of Cowichan Valley, where she’s been living with husband Michael and two children, while serving Island Health as Director of Community Integration, and previously of Emergency and Trauma Care and Strategic Process Improvement.
She started her career working as a Nurse in Montreal, taught at the Université de Montréal, “and fell in love with a humanitarian from B.C.,” with whom she traveled the world with Medécins Sans Frontiėres, living in three African nations and the Amazon region of Brazil.
“We then moved to Canada’s far north, where I had the privilege of working in public health with the Inuit of Nunavut.”
Mėlie and her family then moved to the Gaspė region of Quebec, where her extended family lives, and she held a health director position “in an environment very similar to Powell River’s.”
She also visited Greece twice in the past two years to help tend to the medical needs of refugees during the big migration through that country to the rest of Europe, and she still supports refugees as the need arises and time permits.
Academically, she holds a master’s degree in health administration and is a Fellow of the Canadian Health Research Foundation.
Her family is “very excited” about moving to Powell River, where she, and they, look forward to enjoying the lakes and the outdoor life, and the children to attending a French school.
“The way we deliver health care is evolving,” she said, “and I look forward to working with patients, families, staff, physicians, and partners in the community to help people adjust to the changes that will bring.”
Teresa Shaw, who joined Powell River General Hospital ten years ago, takes over as administrative assistant. Teresa started in Records Management & Registration Services as a casual medical stenographer, health records / admitting clerk and reception clerk. She also held casual positions with the In-Hospital Replenishment Team (Stores) prior to working in the Staffing Department doing staff scheduling for both the hospital and Willingdon Creek Village. She grew up in Powell River, went to school here, then moved to the Lower Mainland and worked for an Ophthalmologist and at the Clinic for Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders at UBC hospital prior to returning to Powell River where she worked as a legal secretary for a local law firm for 10 years before returning to health care.
Teresa replaces Pat van Schaik, who has retired. Over the years since joining the hospital in 2003, Pat has worked with three acute service managers, four medical directors, and six directors. “It’s been a wonderful job, and I’ve enjoyed working with everyone,” Pat said in a farewell interview. “I now look forward to spending as much time and money as I can on my granddaughters, walking my dog by daylight, reading that pile of books my retired friends gave me, and riding my bike for fun instead of commuting, and supervising my gardening husband.”

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