Research and Collaboration

trevor.kenney — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:01:14 +0000

For Dr. Ruth Grant Kalischuk (BN'85, MEd'92), associate dean of nursing in the Faculty of Health Sciences, working with graduate students is more than a natural extension of her collaborative research style, it is also extremely rewarding.

"I absolutely love working with graduate students. They come into the Faculty very passionate about a particular subject area. They want to learn more, go deeper and are so excited to learn how to do research. It is about opening doors and possibilities," says Grant Kalischuk.

Grant Kalischuk's research concentrates on three areas: family and healing research, health and environmental research and nursing education research. With her knowledge and expertise, Grant Kalischuk supervises

(l to r) Marilyn Lamb, Tara Vande Griend, Penni Wilson and Ruth Grant Kalishchuk.

numerous masters in nursing students within the Faculty, including academic assistants Tara Vande Griend and Penni Wilson (BN '03), as well as Support Program for Aboriginal Nursing Students (SPANS) learning facilitator, Marilyn Lamb (BA, BEd '96).

Vande Griend, who began teaching clinical nursing at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in 2006, is set to complete her master's this summer.

"Many instructors are entering academia with only a bachelor of nursing. They don't necessarily have training in education and are thrust into teaching roles. My research looks at the lived experience of novice nursing clinical instructors and how they learn about teaching," explains Vande Griend. "With her experience in nursing education, Ruth has been a constant source of support and encouragement."

As a public health nurse and clinical instructor, Wilson is excited to begin researching issues related to water, population health, and public health nursing.

"I have always had a great interest in population health. The environment has a huge impact on whole populations and water is a huge issue right now," says Wilson.

Lamb is pursuing her master's with a focus on art therapy and end of life care.

"I have seen the benefits of art therapy sessions and I believe there is a place for art therapy in end of life care," says Lamb. "Ruth shares that passion and her passion is contagious. Ideas are always percolating and discussions are lively and enlightening."

Alumna part of nursing's first class

trevor.kenney — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:15:04 +0000

Internationally recognized for her outstanding achievements and contributions to Canadian and aboriginal health care, Dr. Madeleine Dion Stout (BN '82), former Distinguished Alumnus of the year (1995), vividly remembers the day she began her remarkable journey in the field of health care.

"When I was seven years old I started having severe abdominal pain, nausea and a fever. My mother and father hitched up the horse and wagon and we drove all day through the ditches to get to the outpost hospital," remembers Dion Stout. "A lot of people look at ditches as a metaphor for a low life, but I remember feeling overwhelmed with love for my parents and with their love for me as they sat in the wagon so dignified. They had great determination to make sure I was OK no matter how humbly we navigated. In a way, they were like the nurses who would take care of me, so dignified going about their corporal acts of mercy."

Arriving at the hospital, Dion Stout underwent an emergency appendectomy and had her first exposure to nursing. Impressed by the nurses' gentle touches, kind demeanour and white winged hats, Dion Stout decided she would be a nurse one day.

"After high school I went to work as a ward aid in St. Paul, Alta. I applied to Edmonton General Hospital to become a registered nurse because there was a Cree woman from the Saddle Lake First Nation studying there, and I thought if she was accepted maybe I could be too," says Dion Stout.

She completed her RN in 1968 and began working in various capacities for Health and Welfare Canada and as a hospital staff nurse in Edmonton before moving to Pincher Creek to work as a public health nurse on the Peigan First Nation. Wanting to further her education, Dion Stout was thrilled when the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge launched its bachelor of nursing program.

"We were the first graduates in 1982," recalls Dion Stout. "I found it a real privilege to study, but I never found it easy. The academic quality at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ was superb and very challenging. I had to work my head off."

Dion Stout, who graduated with a Bachelor of Nursing degree with distinction in 1982, credits the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ with honing her widely recognized critical thinking and analytical skills.

"I wrote a paper for Dr. Menno Boldt. I thought I aced it because I had worked so hard on it. I only got a B+. He told me that it was a descriptive essay and not an analytic paper. That was when I learned the difference between writing a good story and being a critical thinker," says Dion Stout.

After her graduation in 1982, Dion Stout began working with the Alberta Indian Health Care Commission. She worked as a special advisor in 1983 to Monique Begin, minister of Health and Welfare Canada, and in 1985 Dion Stout became the director of the Indian and Inuit Health Careers Program in Ottawa.

By 1989, Dion Stout knew it was time to further her education once again. She began a master of arts in international affairs at Carleton ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Ottawa and graduated in 1993. While writing her thesis, she became the director for the Centre for Aboriginal Education, Research and Culture at Carleton. She worked as an assistant professor there until 2001 when she and her husband moved to Vancouver.

"I keep myself very busy with boards and committees. In the past nine years, I have been doing the same things I had been doing as a professor, lecturing, researching, writing and public speaking. I use a Cree lens and Cree concepts to try to deepen the understanding of aboriginal health," explains Dion Stout. "I hope throughout my career that I have made people think differently, and I hope that whatever I have done and said that more is done than said at the end."

GET THE FACTS

• Dion Stout is a grandmother of three.

• A Cree speaker, she was born and raised on the Kehewin First Nation, Alta.

• She is the president of Dion Stout Reflections Inc.

• She is a recipient of numerous awards, including: 2010 National Aboriginal Achievement Award - Health; 2008 Centennial Nursing Award; 2004 Honorary PhD from ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia.

• Her speaking engagements have seen her lecture throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.

UNews - public health nurse

Research and Collaboration

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Alumna part of nursing's first class

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