Nursing alumna Rupinder Taggar’s journey to EVP of Sunnybrook hospital

As Rupinder Taggar, Nursing ’91, reflects on her more than three decades in the health sector, she’s filled with gratitude about her career. 

“I had a yearning to find a role where I could feel the most fulfilled,” she said. “So to be in a profession where I would be exposed to people, and be in a position where I could support and help them, was most important to me, and nursing offered all that.”

Today, as the Executive Vice President, Chief Nursing and Health Professions Executive at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Taggar oversees a third of the organization’s clinical programs, and its 5,000 nurses and health professional staff, excluding doctors. 

Taggar was exposed to the inner workings of nursing from an early age. Her mother was a frontline nurse until she retired and would often share stories about her day with her daughter. But it wasn’t until Taggar’s last year of high school, when she was applying for universities, that she decided to pursue nursing at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).

“TMU — Ryerson at the time — had a really good reputation,” Taggar said. “It had a flexible program that offered a diploma, so I could graduate within two years, work as a nurse and then continue to study, which I liked.”

The program’s foundational nursing skills, practical experience in downtown hospitals and nursing theory enticed Taggar to apply, but the flexibility of TMU’s program, which enabled her to work, was a decisive factor. Like many students, Taggar needed to be employed to support herself through school. 

After graduating, Taggar worked as a clinical nurse in the emergency department of two Toronto hospitals for ten years. The position inspired her to expand beyond nursing and begin teaching in post-secondary and hospital settings. 

“I had quite a bit of ambition at the time,” recalled Taggar. “I wanted to understand health care from a broader perspective, so I became a manager and pursued my master’s, which I did while working as a clinical nurse.”

Shortly after completing her graduate degree, Taggar began exploring different roles across the health sector. She accepted a position at the College of Nurses of Ontario, a regulatory body for which she provided education and support to regulated nurses across the province. She also spent some time working in health policy at the government level.

Eventually, Taggar began working at Sunnybrook — as a project manager, progressing through the operational ranks at the hospital over an 18-year period to the leadership position she now holds.

Taggar says a big part of the work as Sunnybrook’s executive vice president is providing system leadership. This aspect of the job requires working with hospital partners, including other health-care providers, various levels of government, as well as stakeholders, to ensure that the needs of patients are being met. 

Despite the work being a long way from her roots as a nurse, Taggar credits the skills and experience she acquired as a nurse as helping her through every stage of her career. She still holds a tremendous appreciation for nursing, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I love my nursing colleagues,” she said. “The outstanding level of compassion and care they provide to our patients makes me so proud, and I feel so inspired.”

For any aspiring nurses, here’s Taggar’s advice: