Keri-Ann Berga is a Registered Nurse, healthcare educator, and Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) with over two decades of experience in perinatal and neonatal care. She holds certifications in both Perinatal and Neonatal nursing through the Canadian Nurses Association, and she has recently begun exploring the evolving role of the Legal Nurse Consultant. 

Keri-Ann is a full-time professor in a BScN Program at St. Lawrence College and teaches Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) and Human Milk Feeding workshops on a casual basis with the Champlain Maternal Newborn Regional Program (CMNRP) through Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), in Ottawa, Ontario. 

Her work is grounded in relational practice, health equity, and a deep belief in the transformative power of nursing education. Across clinical, academic, and consulting settings, she remains committed to compassionate care, systems thinking, and supporting nurses at every stage of their journey.

When Keri-Ann entered nursing over two decades ago, she did so with the same motivations that many nurses share; a passion for science, a heart for caring, and an emancipatory desire to support those navigating life’s most vulnerable moments. Her career path has been shaped not only by where she started, but by a willingness to follow and pursue new opportunities and grow into new roles. Keri-Ann’s journey offers insight and support for the lifelong journey of professional role transition, especially as she undergoes her most recent transformation into that of a legal nurse consultant.

Nursing Rooted in Compassion and Curiosity

Keri-Ann’s nursing education began when she entered the last cohort of the RN diploma program offered by St. Lawrence College. “I thrived in the college setting,” she reflects. “I was inspired by my clinical instructors, and my assigned nurses that I got to work with.”

Early clinical rotations opened doors to specialties in perinatal and neonatal care, areas that continue to anchor her practice. Keri-Ann’s first role as a newly graduated nurse was a resource nurse in the perinatal float pool, a position that offered variety but little predictability. With rotating assignments across areas such as NICU, paediatrics, postpartum, antenatal, and labour and delivery, she faced the challenge of constant change without the consistency that can foster early confidence. While the experience was valuable in building adaptability and a broad skill set, it also highlighted the importance of stable mentorship and routine in easing the role evolution from student to practicing nurse.

Building Expertise Across Systems and Specialties

Throughout her career, Keri-Ann has navigated a variety of roles: NICU nurse, public health nurse who provided home visits to families, clinical educator, lactation consultant, and academic faculty. Each role added depth to her understanding of the healthcare system as a whole. Her certifications in perinatal and neonatal care through the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA), further established her diverse experience in the big picture of the healthcare system as a clinical expert.

Keri-Ann’s work during her time in public health and as a certified IBCLC (International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant) opened doors to roles requiring a deeper understanding of nursing as a relationship-driven practice. Providing care in clients’ own spaces required flexibility, humility, and a heightened sensitivity to social determinants of health. She supported families during early parenting, often witnessing how environment, income, culture, and systemic barriers shaped health outcomes. These experiences reinforced her commitment to equity-based care and helped shape her relational, anti-oppressive approach to nursing across all practice settings. “Even when we didn’t have the language for it,” she says, “that kind of inclusive, relational care has always been central to my nursing.”

For Keri-Ann, some of her clinical highlights have been seeing babies who ‘graduate’ from the NICU, seeing families going home to be the best possible parent they can be (even through challenging situations), and watching families gain confidence and be empowered.

Educator, Mentor, Leader, Advocate

For over 15 years, Keri-Ann has also taught in academic settings, balancing teaching with clinical and research roles. She describes teaching as one of the most rewarding aspects of her career.

“There’s nothing like seeing a student achieve their goals or realize they’re capable of more than they thought,” she shares. A standout moment came when a former student, once determined to work in emergency or ICU, reached out to say she had found her calling in obstetrics and credited being inspired by Keri-Ann’s passion.

Keri-Ann also found herself expanding into the role of leader as she developed a two-year research project exploring a blended online health assessment course. Along with evidential outcomes, she encountered valuable, unexpected lessons in leadership as she found herself coordinating a multidisciplinary team that included students from different programs, all balancing their own workloads. The complexity and duration of the project revealed the importance of structure, planning, and maintaining momentum. She learned that effective leadership often involves guiding from behind; establishing clear goals and structure, supporting others' contributions, and fostering accountability across diverse, dynamic team roles.

Legal Nurse Consulting: A New Frontier

As she begins working in this new space, she is applying her clinical background and expertise to provide unbiased, evidence-informed insight on healthcare documentation and evidence-based standards of care. What distinguishes her nursing journey is not only her depth of clinical experience, but also her systems-level perspective on how factors such as staffing, equipment, or policy can influence outcomes.

Her work in legal consulting also emphasizes the importance of context: understanding what constituted appropriate care at a specific time, location, and setting. This means reviewing historical clinical guidelines and interpreting documentation within the reality of available resources. Formalizing her training with a recent legal nurse consulting course, she has developed a structured, evidence-informed approach to analyzing cases, balancing critical thinking with fairness. Through this lens, Keri-Ann sees legal nurse consulting 

as a way to learn from clinical patterns and to contribute to systems that better support frontline care and clinicians. 

“Being in that open space to take feedback, to learn, to grow, to reflect”

Like many new graduates, Keri-Ann didn’t feel instantly confident in her first role. Her early days in neonatal and perinatal care were fast-paced and stretched her growing knowledge, but the presence of thoughtful mentors helped her stay grounded. To mitigate the challenges of ongoing role expansion both formal assigned and informal mentors “like those people who you know can go to, those people that you connect with and who you feel safe asking for assistance from” helped Keri-Ann feel secure in her role transition. “They created space for questions and for practicing and for observing. I knew I didn't know it all, but at the same time it was all very humbling.”

She additionally recommends that new graduates reach out to their organizations and resources, such as the CNA, provincial nursing association and specialty organizations in order to connect to potential mentors.

“It's a continuous lifelong cycle of reflection and learning and re-evaluation”

Her advice to new graduates is to remain curious and open to new roles, even when they feel underqualified, noting that even if it is a small opportunity such as a webinar, say yes! Join committees, reach out to people and follow the things that pull your interest. “Even if you don't feel qualified, don't wait for perfection. Don't underestimate the power of your transferable skills because nursing teaches us to analyze information, to collect information, to analyze information, to implement, to reevaluate”. She also urges new nurses to seek support, highlight their transferable skills, and find strength in community. “The rising tide lifts all boats,” she adds. “When we support each other, the whole profession rises.”

From neonatal intensive care units to legal chart reviews, from classroom instruction to health equity advocacy, Keri-Ann’s journey exemplifies nursing’s commitment to knowledge and connection. Whether teaching, mentoring, or consulting, her work is anchored in the same emancipatory knowing that first drew her into nursing: the passion to advocate, to improve, and to humanize healthcare systems from within.

To today’s new grads, she offers this: discomfort means you’re growing. "Everything was once done by a beginner".