As a graduate of the McGill University School of Nursing, 1965, I always felt a great fondness for McGill U, SON (School of Nursing) - now, Ingram School of Nursing (ISON) - and Montreal. In the fall of 2000, I had made the decision to retire from McMaster University at the end of my second 5-year term as the Associate Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences and Director, School of Nursing, effective June 30, 2001. My plans changed when I was tracked down in the hills of Pakistan and asked to consider the position of Director, SON, McGill effective July 1, 2001. My first reaction was “no thanks”-I am finished with academia. After lengthy discussions with my husband, several on-site visits, I accepted the position for 4 years only- sufficient time to recruit a longer- term candidate.
Upon my arrival at the School of Nursing on July 2, 2001, one of the first meetings I attended was at the MUHC -MGH Foundation Office with Judith Ritchie, Associate Director of Nursing (Research), MUHC, Valerie Shannon, Director of Nursing-MUHC, Ron Collet, -President, MGH Foundation and Richard Ingram (RI), President, Newton Foundation. One of the first questions I was asked (after the introductions) was by R. Ingram: “you have assessed the SON; how much do you think is required to bring the SON up to your standard? “. That and related questions were to define the following four years. What a surprise-someone interested in supporting nursing! Not only one but two! The MGH Foundation was, along with RI, supporting nursing research at the MUHC.
The two most obvious issues to be addressed were: Wilson Hall-the building housing the School of Nursing and the School of Social Work. It had a favourable location on lower campus, “character” but poor heating and cooling systems, limited space, and flooding in the basement area where clinical lab facilities and student society offices and meeting rooms were located. There was limited research/office- space and the building conveyed a general air of neglect. It was under the “joint administration” of the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Social Sciences. It was not the lovely old building I remembered.
In June 2003, a plan of development of the ISON was presented to the Faculty of Medicine. Although there was a demand and supply gap at all levels of nursing in the province and in Canada in general, enrolment in all the educational programs in nursing at McGill were low e.g., the 3-year undergraduate program leading to the BScN degree, had a total annual enrolment of 90-135 between 1985-2002. The other programs also had had relatively low enrollments over the past 15 years. Counteracting the low enrolment was a strong relationship among the teaching hospitals and with the ISON-McGill, major contributions by the members of the nursing staff to the education of the students, 42% of the nursing staff had BScN degrees or higher-highest in Canada at that time; a deep commitment among the partners to supporting nursing education, research, and practice, and situated in a research-intensive university in a multicultural environment. I observed the positive outcome of a relationship between the School and the hospitals that had been there when I was at McGill earlier and later fostered by Joan Gilchrist. This school had strengths that could be built upon.
Major achievements by June 30, 2005
- A site was selected for a partial new /renovated building. After extensive discussion among the University, Faculty of Medicine, School of Nursing (faculty and students) and in consultation with representatives of the provincial government, there was general agreement that a new or renovated building needed to be provided for nursing. At the time of my departure, the building, currently occupied by the Dean’s Office, Faculty of Medicine, and surrounding space had been identified- the renovations would include rooms underground. Obviously that decision was rescinded! With each change of Principal, Dean, etc., supporters such as Richard ingram and others kept raising the need for a “new” building.
- Generic graduate program enrollment increased slightly and, at the request of the students, the name changed from Generic Master’s in Nursing to Direct-Entry Graduate Program in Nursing (This type of program was well established in the USA, but was the only one of its kind in Canada-having it established at McGill may have been influenced by Elizabeth Logan, a former Director of Nursing at the SON who was a graduate of the direct entry program in nursing at Yale University). One success!
- Discussions commenced between the Director of the SON and the Dean of the Faculty of Science at each of four English- speaking CEGEPs on the island of Montreal and in the Gatineau area; the Quebec government had passed legislation on the development of a post-diploma undergraduate program in nursing for the graduates of the nursing diploma graduates located at the CEGEPs. The development of that post-diploma program would be advantageous for the SON but additional resources, including more faculty and space would be required. That change occurred after my departure, but it did happen as planned.
- A 5-year recruitment plan was developed in association with the faculty members and presented to the Faculty of Medicine. That plan recognized that in addition to recruitment of new researchers a more supportive approach was required to allow qualified faculty members to engage in research. The Faculty of Medicine provided funding for the ISON to participate in the government funded project - that project provided fellowships to encourage nurse clinicians to pursue PhD studies at a participating university and upon completion be in hospital settings to pursue research interests. Each fellow had to be sponsored by a hospital and admitted to a Quebec based program and engage in clinical research, e.g., Drs. K. Kilpatrick (ISON) and Dr. A. Biron (MUHC) were two recipients of those fellowships. Space was required for researchers and reasonable teaching loads. Other faculty members were recipients of fellowships by McGill U, federal or provincial research agencies that allowed them to devote most of their time to research (includes mentoring graduate students and post-doctoral fellows). Research activity flourished and attracted more graduate students.
- The hospital- based clinicians in nursing were interested in being preceptors for students, but hospital budgets for nursing did not include funding for that activity- serving as preceptors became more difficult as service demands increased. It became a contentious issue when access to the university library was no longer available to members of the nursing staff unless they held a university appointment -at the time I departed McGill U, the issue was unresolved. However, providing the hospital department of nursing for part of the time spent as preceptors for nursing students was a regular occurrence elsewhere. I introduced it at McGill but was not uniformly liked by some. On reflection I wonder if negotiating for access to health sciences library, although more difficulty, would have been better. It is difficult to engage in evidence-based nursing without ready access to resources.
- Newton Foundation became a donor to the SON-first major activities to be funded in this time were: a) development of a research network in nursing (GRISC) with joint leadership by Dr. Celeste Johnston-SON, McGill U, U de M, and b) a post-doctoral fellowship for a potential clinician/researcher/teacher/mentor, being recruited to the SON. Funding for GRISC was eventually provided by FRSIQ and continues to be most successful under the leadership of Drs. N. Feeley and H. Harg.
- The Faculty of Medicine formed an interdisciplinary committee to advise on the development of an interdisciplinary simulated learning centre-_Madeleine Buck was appointed to represent the ISON.
I departed in June 2005 and retired to NS. I joined Newton Foundation in the fall of 2007. That is another story. Being on the donor side has been a fascinating learning experience.