ATHABASCA — As is tradition since 2011, members of Athabasca town council presented the annual Dr. Josephine M. Brown Memorial Scholarship to an outstanding graduate of Edwin Parr Composite (EPC) high school this June, less than two weeks after the 2025 EPC grad ceremonies.
But this year, the $2,000 scholarship for medical studies wasn’t given to a new grad; instead, it went to an Athabascan who crossed the stage 11 years ago, one who wants to honour the legacies left by Dr. Brown and her own mother, and renew them in her own way.
“I want to be a doctor that’s raised by nurses; I want to be a doctor that was a nurse, that kind of is a nurse,” said Sarah Burden, 2025 recipient of the Doc Brown scholarship.
Burden is heading into her third year of nursing school at MacEwan University, having started the program in the fall of 2023, nine years after her own high school graduation. While her experience with academics had been a rocky one in her younger years, her later start to post-secondary studies actually put her a step ahead.
“For 18-year-olds to go into any nursing program, let alone the RN (registered nurse) program, it’s such a massive responsibility," said Burden. "It’s underappreciated to go into something that heavy from high school, so I’m glad I have that life experience.”
Burden’s time between high school and nursing school was filled with what she described as getting hands-on with life and absorbing the wisdom from veteran coworkers. After a stint as a bookkeeper, she found herself working as a unit clerk in the Westlock hospital as a way to dip her toe into the world that would become her calling.
“I had known since I was pretty young that I wanted to nurse. My mom’s a nurse, my aunt’s a nurse, my grandma was a nurse. I think I didn’t feel like I was ready for it; I didn’t want to start something and fail, ‘cause I was sure I was not good enough.”
After two and a half years as a unit clerk working alongside her mom and other senior nurses, Burden decided it was time to step into her passion, and her potential.
“I was thinking maybe I’m ready, I’m at that point in my life I think that I could do it justice. My biggest thing was I just really wanted to make my mom proud,” said Burden. “I was ready to make myself proud and my mom proud, so I went for it.”
Since making the jump, Burden said her post-secondary experience proved to be much different than high school; now a 29-year-old sure of her interests in medical sciences, Burden quickly identified herself as a stand out student, and after a push from an instructor, she set her sights beyond the end of the nursing program.
Burden took a research assistant position in her second year of university, studying the differences between the anatomy and physiology curricula of both nursing and medical school, and where nursing curriculum could be improved to better prepare students for practical application.
And after presenting her research to industry experts in Pittsburgh, she knew nursing was a stepping stone — albeit an essential one — on her professional journey.
“I was having dinner at my dad’s house with my brother and my uncle one night, and it just popped out as ‘I think I want to be a doctor.’ I wasn’t really planning on saying that or anything, and then after that I was like, ‘Oh my god, I think I want to be a doctor.’”
Burden said it was only thanks to watching her mom, Jan Baker, pursue a career shift to nursing later in life that gave her the gumption to pursue both nursing and medical school despite feeling ‘behind’ in life.
“Her going later was a pretty formative experience for me, I was like, ‘My mom can do anything,’” said Burden. “If she hadn’t have gone through that experience, I would have thought it was just too late for me to start in my late 20’s.”
And in addition to honouring her mom’s drive as well as aptitude and passion for nursing, Burden wants to continue Doc Brown’s legacy of being a dedicated practitioner, and the nurses’ favourite doctor.
“They’re under-resourced, they-re understaffed, they’re under-appreciated, and I feel like they’re screaming it from the rooftops,” said Burden.
“I know I could bring so much to the community and advocate for us as a community, but not only for the community — also for the nurses. I want to be in a position where I can support nurses from a different perspective and a different angle than from within nursing.”
Born in 1996, Burden was the last scheduled birth at the Athabasca Hospital, and although she doesn’t have any personal memories of Doc Brown, she’s fond of hearing anecdotes from others, often portraying the now-late physician with a cigarette dangling from her lips.
“My mom actually said ‘had she delivered you, you would have had ash on your forehead,’” said Burden.
Already, Burden’s story shares similarity with Doc Brown’s when it comes to bringing a new, feminine perspective to an old Boy’s Club, and demonstrating a passion for medicine. In a 2001 interview with former Athabasca Archivist Marilyn Mol, Doc Brown said:
“Helen McLean said, ‘you better go on town council, we need a woman on there,’ so I says, OK. But I would never be mayor because dammit, I was up and down, in and out all throughout council meetings.”
Burden hopes to return to the Athabasca and area hospitals to focus on emergency once she’s accepted into and completes medical school — a long, unsure process she said she’s willing to stick out to accomplish her goal of becoming the next Doc Brown.
“I want to be that, I want to be a doctor that’s approachable, but people trust as a professional,” said Burden. She said while new doctors moving to rural communities are a necessity, there’s nothing quite like homegrown healthcare.
“It’s different from someone who was raised here, that went to school with your kids, that lives down the road from you,” she said. “You go into medicine to help people, but going into medicine to help people that you care about — it’s huge.”
Now a year out from applying to med school and with her sights set on finishing her RN program, Burden said she no longer feels inadequate, in a rush to become an MD, or as if she’s ‘behind’ in life.
“In the meantime, I’m going to work on being the absolute best nurse I can be,” said Burden. “It’s going to make me better and stronger in the long run, because the more of a nurse I am going into medicine is always going to be an advantage.”
