Ryerson is home for access advocate and nurse practitioner Erin Ziegler

A professor at the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing (DCSN) and primary healthcare nurse practitioner, Erin Ziegler, says she has always felt at home at Ryerson. The clinical lead of a transgender primary care program she was inspired as a child by her local nurse, ‘Nurse Mary,’ to become the nurse she is today.  

Ziegler began at Ryerson as an undergraduate student in nursing in 1999 and recently became an assistant professor teaching in both the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. Having completed her bachelor of science in nursing  (2003) and her master of nursing with a primary health care nurse practitioner certificate (2011) at Ryerson, she completed her PhD in Nursing (2019) at McMaster University, Ziegler credits recently retired professor, Faith Donald, for encouraging her academic pursuits. “I have always considered Ryerson as home,” she says, “and it is so fantastic to be teaching at the DCSN.”

“I was inspired, as a child, by Nurse Mary,” Ziegler explains. “I think many small towns have someone like her, someone almost everyone knows and looks up to... She had such a caring manner that I just always wanted to be like her, and I knew Ryerson was the place to go..”    

Ziegler’s work is two-fold. She is both a practicing clinician as a primary health care practitioner as well as a teacher and researcher. In her practice, she works with a family health team and is the clinical lead for their transgender health program. “I only work with trans-identified people, so I help with everything from hormones, name change paperwork, to surgery prep, and post-surgical care.” In her research, she looks at access to health care for LGBTQ2SA communities including access to gender-affirming care. She has recently submitted a grant request aiming to further expand that work to include Northern Ontario. As part of a CHIR grant, Ziegler has co-developed a series of educational learning modules. “I’ve developed an online educational tool kit for nurses to provide training on cultural humility and working with LGBTQ2SA individuals. It is like a ‘choose your own adventure’ and you can see how different approaches affect the client, nurse, and nurse-client relationship. We were able to hire LGBTQ2SA community members to collaborate and perform for the videos. I’m really proud of how people can authentically represent themselves and their stories. I hope this will be a great tool for nurses.”  

Ziegler is very excited about the role nurse practitioners can play in expanding health care access and services for patients. “As a nurse practitioner, our scope of work has expanded since I started. Initially, there was a list of medications we could prescribe which has grown to include controlled substances. Testosterone is a controlled substance... so now I can prescribe it to trans men.  There is a lot of potential for nurse practitioners to be more prominent in our health care system, and we need to have these roles funded, promoted, and accepted.”