So perhaps it’s no surprise she finds herself working with health-care professionals to improve the lives of patients during their final days on earth.

The McNab-Braeside resident, who grew up in Northcote just north of Renfrew, has been an employee at Hospice Renfrew since the end-of-life-care facility opened in January 2008.

Given the chance to gain more insight into her work, McGregor is participating in the Champlain Regional Palliative Care Mentorship Program with two other nurses. One is  from Pembroke Regional Hospital, one with the Care for Cornwall Hospice scheduled to open in 2009.

The co-ordinator is Bruyère Continuing Care in Ottawa, which developed the program to build capacity in palliative care and expertise in rural areas, in order to improve patient care.

Taking a six-month leave of absence with pay, McGregor, 25, is working closely with a handful of health-care workers.

“I expressed an interest in furthering my interest in palliative care,” said McGregor, who finished a BSc degree in nursing from the University of Ottawa in 2004.

“It’s an advanced kind of palliative-care nursing program to enhance leadership skills with patients and their families,” says Hospice Renfrew executive director Diane Caughey of the mentorship program.

With palliative care being redefined and refined in recent years, the program may also determine how McGregor’s skills can be used more extensively in the area, adds Caughey.

For her mentorship, which runs from September 2008 to March 2009, McGregor provides early and glowing reviews.

“It’s fantastic. It’s such a fabulous opportunity to be able to learn from these experts,” she says.

LARGE PALLIATIVE CARE HOSPITAL UNIT

Early in the mentorship she spent time at Elisabeth Bruyère Hospital, whose 36 beds are part of Canada’s largest academic palliative care and end-of-life hospital unit.

As Ottawa’s only palliative-care hospital unit, its in-patient care provides an interdisciplinary approach to physical, psychosocial and spiritual suffering. The facility also provides out-patient service through its palliative-care pain and symptom-management team.

McGregor has also spent time at The Hospice at May Court and with the Ottawa General Hospital palliative care team.

As sobering as it can be for patients to know they are going to die shortly, McGregor says an important focus in palliative care is on improving the quality of life for one’s final living days or months. Compassion with control is part of that necessary focus, she stresses.

“You can express compassion and empathy for patients and families without wearing all the emotions on your face,” says McGregor, admitting she couldn’t do that earlier in her career.

“I don’t know how much help you are if they’re falling apart and you’re falling apart.”

Helping to improve palliative-care patients’ quality of life is also tremendously rewarding, she adds.