By Margaret Scaia, RN, BScN, MN, PhD and Lynne Young, RN, PhD
The University of Victoria (UVic) School of Nursing (SON) opened in 1976 offering an on-campus program to registered nurses pursuing a baccalaureate degree in nursing after “stormy and uncertain beginnings” in which nurses strongly and relentlessly lobbied government for funding to open this program.
At this time, there were no options on Vancouver Island for diploma-qualified nurses to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). By 1978 BSN degrees were conferred on 28 nurses; many had been lobbyists for this program; all were women. In 1989, in an effort to develop an undergraduate program in nursing, what was referred to as the “kitchen table” discussions began. In 1989 a partnership of ten colleges and universities established a collaboration to offer an undergraduate degree in nursing using the feminist foundations of Bevis and Watson’s (1989) “caring curriculum.”(1)
For many early second wave scholars and activists, caring became an instrument of social action, which held particularly potency for women and potentially
for nursing within Canada and globally.Enactment of the curriculum included activities such as assignments involving different learning modalities, integration of affective learning, including caring, to consolidate psycho-motor skills, the re-arrangement of desks into a circle to emphasize the relationality of the teaching and learning experiences and to reduce the perception of hierarchical boundaries between teachers and students, the use of reflective journaling to encourage self-understanding and reflection, as well as the consideration of partnerships between nurses and patients, families, and community. Opportunities for a “new” curriculum were consolidated as a result of nursing education moving more firmly into the university setting. These possibilities were also reflective of women’s changing roles in Canadian society and the increasing number of women in positions of influence both within and outside the academe.
In the succeeding years, the UVic SON continued to build on past success and reach out to students through their Post RN Diploma program in 1980; the Collaborative Nursing Program in 1989; 1991, the Multidisciplinary Masters Program; 1996, the expansion of the undergraduate program to the Lower Mainland; 2003, the Masters in Nursing degree; 2005, the PhD in nursing program; and 2010, the MN Double Degree – Nursing and Health Information Sciences.
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1 Bevis, E. O., & Watson, J. (1989). Toward a caring curriculum : A new pedagogy for nursing. New York, N.Y: National League for Nursing.
Chronology of the Development of UVic School of Nursing Programs
1976 UVic SON opens offering an on-campus program to Registered Nurses pursuing a baccalaureate degree
1980 UVic SON offers a distance degree completion program for Registered Nurses
1988 UVic SON held a workshop to explore the possibility of offering a collaborative baccalaureate curriculum
1989 Collaboration begins between UVIC SON and Camosun, Caribou, Malaspina, and Okanagan Colleges to offer a generic baccalaureate degree within a shared curriculum
1991 Multidisciplinary Master’s Program commenced
1992 North Island College and Langara College join the collaboration
1993 Selkirk College joins the collaboration
1994 Kwantlen and Douglas Colleges join the collaboration
1996 The UVic SON opens a campus on the Lower Mainland of BC to enable students from Langara, Douglas, and Kwantlen Colleges to receive a baccalaureate degree without traveling to study in Victoria
2003 UVic SON offers a Master’s in Nursing degree. Multidisciplinary Master’s Program collaboration ends for the School of Nursing
2004 CNPBC dissolves, Collaboration for Academic Education in Nursing (CAEN) commences
2005 UVic SON offers a PhD in nursing program
2007 UVic SON Lower Mainland campus closes
2010 UVic SON offers the MN Double Degree – Nursing and Health Information Sciences
From the 2013 Fall Communiqué — History of Nursing
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