Speaker: NP Hannah Varto
NP Hannah Varto has been an NP for 18 years and has been providing specialty forensic-medical care for victim-survivors of interpersonal violence for most of her career. She led the creation of Canada’s first outpatient specialty clinic for people who have experienced recent interpersonal violence and has been providing care there for the past 10 years. In 2022 NP Varto added a Strangulation Clinic to the services her team offers to ensure victims of this serious act of violence have a place to receive specialty comprehensive assessments and care. To remain somewhat mentally well, Hannah also offers episodic sexual health services for any person in her community in need of IUD or implant placement, STI testing and treatment and medical termination of pregnancy.
Research has become a focus for Hannah over the past five years as she joined a team of researchers focused on seeking a blood test as a method of diagnosing concussions, anoxic brain injuries and mental trauma following violence. As well, she is involved in about ten data analysis projects examining trends in violence and outcomes across populations. NP Varto is also an instructor for a number of micro-credential courses and for parts of the core forensic nurse examiner training at BCIT in the Forensic Health Sciences program. She provides private medical-legal consulting in her “spare” time.
