Community Health Nurses of Canada Conference

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The program for the 6th annual national conference organized by the Community Health Nurses of Canada is now available. Judging from  the program, it promises to be a great event with some stellar keynote speakers and a wide range of concurrent sessions. The program provides details of several pre-conference workshops.

Having attended the founding meeting of the Community Health Nurses of Canada, I am thrilled to see that there will be a 25th anniversary celebration at this year’s conference. The conference takes place in Toronto from May 14 to 16, 2012.

For other conferences this year, please see my Events page.

Highlights of 2011 by Nora Whyte

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Among the highlights of 2011 was the opportunity to make a return visit to India as part of a small delegation from the Canada-India Education Society and the University of British Columbia (UBC) School of Nursing.  The Canada-India Education Society (CIES) is a civil society organization in BC that has been active in development work in rural Punjab for the past 20 years. CIES and UBC School of Nursing have a strong history of working together in support of nursing education, primary health care and community development in one district in Punjab state.

Harinder Dhahan, Sarup Mann, Barj Dhahan, Susan Dahinten and I met with representatives of organizations in New Delhi and Chandigarh and in several centres and villages in Punjab. Each meeting contributed to our understanding of current issues and gave us an opportunity to explore areas of mutual interest.  Our purpose was to explore the potential for long-term initiatives and partnerships in rural social and economic development.

It was fascinating to return to North India to witness recent changes in infrastructure, to learn about current social conditions and to meet dynamic people who are contributing to change. One of the most exciting places to visit was the Public Health Foundation of India that has become a national focal point for public health training, research and advocacy since its formation in 2006.

BC group with hosts at BFUHS, Faridkot

We were invited to visit Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) in Faridkot where we were welcomed by university officials, met with faculty members and graduate students, visited three affiliated nursing colleges in Faridkot and Muktsar districts and toured the university teaching hospital. Baba Farid University is a growing public institution responsible for all nursing, medical and dental education in Punjab with 40,000 students in 140 colleges.

On a personal level, it was also highly rewarding to reconnect with people we had met on previous visits, particularly staff at Guru Nanak Mission Trust in Dhahan-Kaleran, Nawanshahr, where I had been a regular visitor from 2001 to 2005. Although our time on this trip was quite limited, we enjoyed an informal meeting with faculty at the Guru Nanak College of Nursing, a tour of Dhahan village and a visit to the local school.  Plans are now well underway for several collaborative initiatives that will be implemented in 2012.

Other highlights in 2011 are covered in the posts below about my new role as project manager for the Association of Registered Nurses of BC. In December we hosted a member engagement visit by representatives of the Canadian Nurses Association and we look forward to the CNA Annual Meeting and Biennial Convention that will be held in Vancouver in June 2012. For a link to the CNA Convention info and notices about other conferences, please see the Events Page.

Morning school run in Faridkot, Punjab

ARNBC Developments December 2011

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Trumpeter Swans - Comox Bay

The ARNBC Blog is gathering momentum! It has been so interesting  to read the posts and the comments that are being generated over time. Pat Foster wrote a great one recently on the theme of Better Health, Better Care highlighting the role of nurses in chronic disease management.

Two astute commentaries on Pat’s article are worth reading for the authors’ knowledge of the history of the Comox Valley Nursing Centre and for their expert perspectives on the value of a professional association in innovation and policy leadership.

Please visit the ARNBC blog to read other articles of interest to nurses in British Columbia and to add your voice to our discussions.

We are launching a consultation process with BC nurses in 2012–more to come in the next update.

 

Posted by Nora Whyte

Project Manager, Association of Registered Nurses of British Columbia

 

 

Creating a new nursing association in BC

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Creating a new nursing association in BC

For the past six  months I have been working as project manager for the Association of Registered Nurses of British Columbia (ARNBC). My role is to support the work of the Board of Directors in creating a professional organization for registered nurses in the province.

The goal is to establish a new organization that will bring the perspectives of BC nurses to health and social policy issues. Once fully established, the new association will carry out strategies to advance the role of the nursing profession and collaborate with other nursing and health organizations provincially and nationally.

The ARNBC and the Canadian Nurses Association have signed a one-year agreement to work together on initiatives that will contribute to  building our new association. We are hosting a cross-country tour to BC by a CNA delegation in December and we’re planning a province-wide consultation process with nurses that will be launched in January. It is an exciting time in the history of nursing in BC.

Members of the ARNBC Board are reaching out through engagement with nurses at meetings, conferences and at schools of nursing this fall. We’re using our blog to post opinions and commentary on topical issues including the new Nurse-Family Partnership Program and a fascinating background piece on Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site.

Please visit the ARNBC website for updates, new blog posts and links to our social media sites.

 

Cultural Safety Curriculum Project: A New Publication

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Cultural Safety Curriculum Project: A New Publication

Cultural safety workshop 2010

Last year I worked with faculty members at Thompson Rivers University (TRU) School of Nursing in Kamloops, British Columbia on a project to incorporate concepts of cultural safety into their nursing program. This project drew on the Cultural Safety Curriculum Framework developed by the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada in conjunction with the Canadian Nurses Association and the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing in 2009.

At a two-day gathering in March 2010, the School of Nursing brought together a dynamic mix of students, practitioners, community partners and faculty to explore the curriculum framework. The session provided an opportunity to work with elements of the framework by identifying supports needed for students and faculty and by creating exemplars for future learning experiences at TRU. The exemplars included involving Elders in courses, a community immersion practicum, learning activities on residential school history and faculty immersion in rural and remote First Nations communities.

Star Mahara, Susan Duncan, Joanne Brown and Nora Whyte described this process and outlined the exemplars in an article that is now available online in the International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, published by Berkeley Electronic Press. Our article also discusses the development of an advocacy statement in support of Aboriginal students within the School of Nursing and the university community as a whole.

After reviewing the relevant literature on this topic and writing drafts of the manuscript, we were delighted to receive word that it was accepted for publication following a peer review process. Please find our article, “It Takes a Community to Raise a Nurse: Educating for Culturally Safe Practice with Aboriginal Peoples”, at http://www.bepress.com/ijnes/vol8/iss1/art17.