By Janet Storch, RN, BScN, MHSA, PhD, DSc, LLD
Edited by Margaret Scaia
I was asked to speak about the UVIC School of Nursing’s historical contributions to the evolution of Nursing Education and Practice.
In this presentation I will focus on three areas in relation to this topic:
• Explaining ourselves to others
• Advantages and challenges faced by the school over time
• Contributions we can claim about the school
Explaining ourselves to others
The year 1976 marked the first year of operation of the School. When consideration was being given to opening a School of Nursing at UVIC, I found there was a need to explain nursing itself. I needed to explain to the press, and to the university, that nurses are “not junior doctors”, “that apprenticeship dated models are not adequate or desirable” and “that nursing is not only nurturance because there is a science of nursing.”
Some years later, In the Spring of 1997, the SON prepared for and received RNABC School approval for the first time under the new “Caring Curriculum” model based on the work of Em Bevis and Jean Watson. Before that approval came, there was a special meeting of the whole faculty called along with the RNABC Approvals committee in Vancouver, to explain why our curriculum was strong and appropriate for school approval. Then, at the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) Accreditation site visit (that included 10 collage partners including UVIC), the accreditors suspended their disbelief until they read our documents and interviewed many faculty and students who “explained ourselves to them” in a most favourable light.
Advantages and challenges faced by the school over time
One real advantage of the establishment of the School of Nursing at UVic, in my view, was the absence of a Faculty of Medicine on campus. In my experience on two other campuses, nursing programs were plagued by the anxieties of medical schools about what nurses were planning to teach, and often mandating that they be part of the teaching of nurses. In fact, when an issue arose about UVIC perhaps needing a Faculty of Medicine, a fairly stiff memo arrived at the Director’s office from President Petch to state that a Faculty of Medicine could have potential dangers for the University of Victoria. He noted that medical schools are typically independent of the university, they enjoy a large budget, cost per student exceeds any other program, and both education and research are typically in the hands of physicians and surgeons. Further, he explained, the subservience of nurses, social workers, etc. is facilitated by the way these students are trained
There were also challenges for the school. As the number of students applying to UVIC from colleges to complete their BSN increased (in large part due to the entry to practice change in 2000) sufficient space at UVIC and a desire to save hundreds of students from moving to Victoria or commuting from the Lower Mainland, led the SON at UVIC to start a campus in Vancouver. Between 1995 and 2007 the SON operated a Satellite Campus at Langara College. At that campus we benefited from UBC’s newly minted PhD graduates. Those new docs included Rosalie Starzomski, Paddy Rodney, Lynne Young, Colleen Varcoe, and Vicki Smye. These pioneers had some terrific challenges and they did an amazing job. The whole operation would not have been possible without the strong administrative support from Pat Blonde, Diana Walton, Gail Allison, and others. I suggest that the dedication of faculty and staff at the Langara campus changed the lives of many nurses who might otherwise not have been able to obtain a BSN, and has made a substantial difference to BC’s need for baccalaureate graduates in those years.
Contributions we can claim about the school
The first director of the UVic SON was Dr. Isabel MacRae who planted the seeds for distributed learning when she noted that it was time to move from curriculum research to delivery of software in nursing education that could be used country-wide. By 1980, the UVic SON had developed its first credit nursing course using print, interactive cable, TV, and telephone to reach students across BC. By April 1985, Elaine Gallagher, member of the Extension Committee, estimated that the number of distance nursing students registered was approximately 800.
Another visionary leader who made a significant contribution to nursing education nationally, was Dorothy Kergin whose reputation and leadership was likely the spark that encouraged a visit from the Director of the National Health Research and Development Program (NHRDP) to talk about research funding. By 1984, faculty members held national grants: Carolyn Attridge held a grant from SSHRC, Isobel Dawson a grant from NHRDP, Marilyn Jackson, a grant from Multiple Sclerosis, and Elaine Gallagher a grant to explore teleconferencing for Distance Education. Both Dorothy Kergin and Jesse Mantle were funded to focus their research on aging.
The model of collaboration with college partners and nursing courses made available at rural satellite learning centres was central to providing access to nursing education outside major urban centres. For example, in the summer of 1984, courses were offered off site to nurses in Prince George and in 1985 in Kelowna and Nanaimo. These were courses in “teaching and learning”, “nursing administration” and “nursing theory”. This outreach and collaboration established a new benchmark in Canadian nursing education history.
UVIC, SON’s leadership in the curriculum revolution of the 1980s and 1990s was also expressed through the adoption and development of the “caring curriculum” in the late 1980s. This was a unique contribution to Canadian nursing which only a smaller nursing school could have achieved. The SON was really the pilot project that others came to emulate. Based upon the work of curriculum visionaries Em Bevis and Jean Watson, faculty like Marcia Hills, Gweneth Doane and spear-headed the adoption of this new curriculum model and did the developmental work to make the curriculum a desirable choice for so many other nursing programs across Canada.
Our Graduate programs have subsequently been built from the undergraduate curriculum with a strong philosophical base emphasizing ethics and critical theory. This work has formed the foundation for 5 graduate programs including a PhD program based on a ‘philosophical model that attends to coherence among and between ontological, epistemological, ethical, and practical dimensions’ – a program designed to change practice.
Clinical practice has always been a major part of course work, despite terrific difficulties at times in gaining sufficient access to practice sites. The development of the Nurse Practitioner program underscored the importance of practice as did the faculty member’s research undertakings focused on chronic illness, street involved people, youth, women, aging, harm reduction, illness prevention and health promotion, ethics and more.
In conclusion, I would argue that the UVic SON is unique in its national contribution to nursing education. A review of how the school was established, the advantages and challenges of those who worked from a vision of change, and the contributions of faculty, staff and students, has served to make this contribution more visible and accessible to historians of nursing education and to those seeking to appreciate the legacy that launched and maintains the integrity of its graduate and undergraduate programs today.
From the 2016 Fall Communiqué — 40th Anniversary Issue
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