UNews - Dr. Chris Hosgood

Longtime nursing educator to receive Friends of Health Sciences Award

caroline.zentner — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 15:59:39 +0000

A sudden change of mind led Dr. Joyce D’Andrea to nursing but it proved to be a wise decision that set the course for a lengthy and rewarding career in nursing education. For her dedication to preparing students for work as professional nurses, the Faculty of Health Sciences at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is pleased to present her with the Friend of Health Sciences Award.

“Joyce has dedicated her career to nursing education,” says Dr. Chris Hosgood, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences. “At Lethbridge College and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, she has supported and mentored generations of students over a nursing career of five decades.”

“I was shocked—caught completely off guard,” says D’Andrea, recalling her reaction when she learned about the award. “There are so many people doing phenomenal work who I think are more deserving of the award. It is such an honour—very humbling.”

Her work over the decades has involved teaching thousands of nursing students in a career that has blended her twin passions of teaching and nursing. In her nomination, she is described as passionate, confident, warm, committed, positive, encouraging, and an inspirational role model, an icon of nursing leaders and a wonderful mentor.

The Lethbridge born-and-raised D’Andrea, as a high school senior, wasn’t sure what career direction to take. She’d been thinking about becoming a teacher, possibly of French, as one of her own teachers had suggested.

She remembers clearly how that all changed one day when a few girls from her classroom were called to the principal’s office. In discussion with the girls, D’Andrea learned they had been accepted into nursing school and that the call to the office was to begin the required series of inoculations. The girls’ excitement about their career choice, and the fact they would be moving into the nursing residence, prompted D’Andrea to make some inquiries. Sister Beatrice, head of the nursing program at St. Michael’s School of Nursing, responded immediately with an invitation to come for an interview. The interview culminated with an offer of admission and the seeding of an idea.

“Sister Beatrice said, ‘If you still want to be a teacher, you can teach nursing,’” says D’Andrea. “I was happy with my decision right from the start. I loved the learning and being on the nursing units.”

In her third year, D’Andrea had the opportunity to experience the role of clinical instructor during her final practicum. She was assigned, under the supervision and mentorship of a senior nursing instructor, to supervise a group of first-year students on a medical rotation.

“What an amazing experience; I was hooked—I wanted to be an instructor,” she says.

To teach, D’Andrea needed a baccalaureate degree. At that time, the closest option for a nursing degree was the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, where she began her studies for a two-year post basic degree. After a year, D’Andrea returned to Lethbridge and, through a university transfer agreement, took the remaining courses for her degree at the U of L. That decision allowed her to teach at St. Michael’s School of Nursing during the summer and work part-time at the hospital during the school year.

“I had the best of both worlds, to teach and to nurse,” she says.

Toward the end of the 1960s, the province began to gradually transition nursing programs from hospitals to educational settings. Lethbridge Community College received approval to offer a two-year nursing diploma, with the first class admitted in 1969. In 1970 and upon completing her degree, D’Andrea was hired by the college as a full-time faculty member.

D’Andrea was also passionate about learning. After five years at the College, she took a sabbatical to begin working on a master’s degree at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Colorado. After completing the degree and more than 20 years later, with her children grown and attending university, D’Andrea decided to pursue a PhD. She started working on a doctorate in Higher Education through Nova Southeastern ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Florida.

“I think I’m your ultimate lifelong learner. I finished the doctorate in 2009, just as I was retiring from full-time work,” says D’Andrea.

She’s pursued part-time opportunities since then and now divides her time between teaching online courses in the Master of Nursing program at Athabasca ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and being a sessional instructor at the U of L, where she oversees students in their final preceptorship.

“I don’t think I could have had a better career. I found my passion in nursing and teaching students. For any new student, that’s what I would wish for them. There are so many opportunities in nursing where they can develop their passion and shape their own career,” says D’Andrea.

The Friends of Health Sciences Award will be celebrated on Thursday, Oct. 26 at a dinner in the Students’ Union Ballroom. Tickets are $50 each or $400 for a table of eight. Tickets are available online.

Oral history project celebrates U of L’s 50th anniversary with 50 Voices

caroline.zentner — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 16:29:31 +0000

The 50 Voices oral history project has woven a tapestry of perspectives about the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge over the past 50 years. From the early days, when Dr. Van Christou (LLD ’84) worked to convince the provincial government of the need for a university in Lethbridge, to the turn of the century, when Dr. Bryan Kolb was shocked but pleased by then-president Dr. Howard Tennant’s promise to construct a neuroscience building, the project captures the U of L’s impressive emergence as a leading university.

Undertaken as an anniversary project, the Centre for Oral History and Tradition (COHT) wanted to portray a diverse assortment of voices—faculty, staff, students, alumni and administrators—in the 50 Voices project. COHT was still in its infancy when it adopted the project to commemorate the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s 50th anniversary. Dr. Jenna Bailey, a post-doctoral fellow with COHT, suggested the idea as she had been involved in a similar project at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Sussex.

Dr. Dennis Connolly is one of the people featured in the 50 Voices oral history project

The 50 Voices project committee, which includes Professor Emeritus Dr. Jim Tagg, Dr. Chris Hosgood, Dr. Heidi MacDonald and U of L archivist Mike Perry, brought Tracy McNab (BASc ’81, MA ’09) on board as project manager to begin planning for 50 Voices. The beauty of oral history is that it provides a way to tell a story from multiple perspectives, something that befits the U of L’s beginnings.

“I don’t think a traditional top-down narrative suits the U of L; it was a grassroots university,” says McNab.

“The two best features of oral history are highlighted in this project,” says MacDonald, a U of L history professor and COHT director. “First, oral history allows us to interview people from a variety of walks of life and I think we’ve come through. Second, the richness of oral history allows the participants to interpret the event as they saw it.”

After McNab set up the terms of reference and the study had been approved by the Human Subject Research Committee, the difficult process of selecting interviewees started. They built on the interviews done by Tagg for the First Generation Oral History Project. They wanted an equal number of men’s and women’s voices. After seeking help from the U of L’s 50th anniversary steering committee and numerous other constituencies, names started pouring in and, once the 50 had been chosen, invitations were sent.

“They were thrilled to be asked. Only one person declined our invitation in favour of someone else in the department they thought would be more representative,” says MacDonald. “Tracy deserves an awful lot of credit for that; oral history is all about relationship and communication.”

Students were also involved in the process, whether conducting interviews or transcribing them. In addition to Jenna Bailey, who served as a consultant on the project, Johanna DeVisser, Diane McKenzie, Nicole McMullan and Jasmine Saler conducted the interviews, transcribed them and chose representative excerpts for the 50 Voices website. Levi Balen photographed the interviewees and edited photos for the website.

“It was amazing and I really enjoyed working on the project,” says Diane McKenzie (BA ’16), a graduate student who conducted 13 interviews for 50 Voices. “The people I interviewed were fantastic. They are so interesting and have accomplished so much in their lives. This project is a great way to capture the U of L’s history.”

A theme that emerged from the interviews was that the U of L was a community from its very early days. That’s a sentiment that Sheila Matson, one of the 50 Voices, agrees with. Matson, who joined the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in 1968 as support staff in the Registrar’s office, says the U of L was like a second home—a place where she felt welcomed and safe, had adventures and was encouraged to grow.

“I was a kid when I started and it’s wonderful to still be around this place,” says Matson. “I feel like I have a real history here. My first husband, Grant Pisko (BASc ’70), and my current husband, Alan Matson (BASC ’71, BEd ’77), are both alums. My son Matt (Pisko) (BSc ’97) and my daughter Lindsay (Pisko Ganske) (BA, BMgt ’01) studied here and worked as lifeguards at the pool. Our family has really been linked with the U of L.”

The full interviews will be deposited in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Archives and will be available on the web through the library for generations of students, community members and scholars in the years ahead.

“This is truly a legacy gift for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ,” says Perry. “By acquiring, preserving and making this project available to the wider community, the 50 Voices Oral History Project will make a lasting contribution to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s historical record.”

“The interviews provide context and emotion and the result is an account with breadth and depth,” says McNab.

U of L kicks off 50th anniversary celebrations with Founders’ Day Weekend

caroline.zentner — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 16:21:05 +0000

Now that the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge has officially reached the age of 50, celebrations to mark the occasion are in order.

“We are inviting everyone with a connection to the U of L to participate in the many celebrations we have planned to commemorate our 50th anniversary,” says Dr. Chris Hosgood, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and co-chair of the 50th Anniversary Committee. “If not for the support of the community, this university may have never broken ground. We want to acknowledge the determination and commitment of our founders to make this institution a reality.”

The Founders’ Day Weekend on Jan. 13 and 14 provides a way to acknowledge the contributions of the many forward-thinking individuals behind the idea of a university in Lethbridge and all those people who have played roles, large and small, in making the U of L the leading institution it is today.

The journey to becoming a full-fledged university is highlighted in Let It Shine On, a song written by John Wort Hannam (BA/BEd ’96) to mark the U of L’s 50th anniversary. His lyrics tell the U of L story, from the ‘plans that were laid’ to ‘times of unrest, lines of protest,’ to a future filled with the ‘power of hope and the power of dreaming.’

“We are excited to premiere this song during our Founders’ Day Weekend,” says Chris Horbachewski, vice-president of Advancement and co-chair of the 50th Anniversary Committee. “John has captured our past, present and future in his song and we look forward to sharing it with the community during Founders’ Day Weekend and playing it at special occasions for years down the road.”

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ will be launching several special initiatives during the Founders’ Day Weekend. They include the unveiling of the U of L tartan and naming the winner of the tartan contest. A specialty beer label will be revealed, details of the 50 Voices oral history project will be announced and the Shine On Fund will be introduced. In addition, a special birthday cake made in the shape of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Hall will also make its appearance. Baked and decorated by Amy Whipple (BA ’07), this architect of fondant has used more than 30 pounds of butter, about 90 cups of sugar and 13 dozen eggs to create a birthday cake like no other.

U of L’s 50th anniversary plans promise to engage community

caroline.zentner — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 17:57:14 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge will soon be 50 years old, an anniversary that will be marked all year long with activities to spark a sense of nostalgia, fuel the imagination for a shiny future and to simply enjoy.

“We look forward to celebrating this milestone in our history with the community of Lethbridge and southern Alberta,” says Dr. Mike Mahon, U of L president and vice-chancellor. “Fifty years ago, our ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ began as a vision held within the hearts of many southern Albertans. This determined group of individuals, who were very forward looking, imagined a university that could be different. Fifty years later, I’d say that vision has materialized. Today, the U of L is widely recognized as one of Canada’s top-ranked universities and a leading research institution.”

The 2017 year will be filled with special events and activities. First on the calendar is the Founders’ Day Weekend on Jan. 13 and 14.

“We have many reasons to celebrate, chief among them are all the people who have been a part of our journey for the past five decades,” says Dr. Chris Hosgood, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and co-chair of the U of L’s 50th anniversary committee. “We hope everyone with a connection to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ will come and join us for a fun-filled weekend of activities.”

As part of Founders’ Day, the U of L will announce some of the special initiatives and activities planned for the year, says Chris Horbachewski, vice-president of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Advancement and co-chair of the U of L’s 50th anniversary committee.

“I hope people will join us and participate in as many of the activities as they can,” says Horbachewski. “We have a great lineup of events throughout the weekend and many are family friendly.”

The Founders’ Day Weekend begins at noon on Friday, Jan. 13 with a free barbecue lunch for the first 800 guests, complete with a birthday cake built to remember. John Wort Hannam (BA/BEd ’96), songwriter and musician, will premiere the U of L’s 50th anniversary song. The U of L tartan will be unveiled and a special U of L label for a locally made beer will be revealed. A variety of additional projects will also be announced. Other highlights include themed campus tours, indoor tailgate parties, Pronghorn games, Frost Fest and the True North Cabaret on Saturday night, featuring the talents of Wort Hannam, the Groove Apostles and The Blue.

More information about anniversary activities can be found at the UL50 Years website.

Local nursing education program achieves accreditation

caroline.zentner — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 17:12:34 +0000

The Nursing Education in Southwestern Alberta (NESA) program, delivered collaboratively by Lethbridge College and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, has met national standards for nursing schools and obtained accreditation by the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN).

The NESA program has always been an approved program at the provincial level. CASN accreditation means the program has met the national standards for nursing programs across Canada.

“We have accreditation for five years, which is fantastic,” says Chris Hosgood, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences. “It absolutely confirms what I’ve always thought, which is that we have a wonderful program with incredibly engaged and dedicated instructors.”

“This accreditation is a result of exceptional collaboration between the two institutions,” says Debra Bardock, dean of Lethbridge College’s Centre for Health and Wellness. “The program is a success due to the commitment, dedication and consistent pursuit of excellence by faculty and staff to support the success of students.”

The designation means the NESA program meets the standards for both curriculum and faculty research. The program offers a united curriculum over four years, with students spending their first two years at the College and their final two years at the U of L.

“The benefit for students is that they have a CASN-accredited program supporting their access into graduate programming in nursing, as well as international nursing opportunities,” says Hosgood, adding that the U of L offers a master of nursing and a doctorate in population studies in health.

“Students also receive life experience that is the best of both worlds,” says Bardock. “They experience both university and college life, and ultimately get to benefit from the success of the high-level collaboration between the two institutions.”

The accreditation process took around three years. The first step was a self-study of the program according to a set of criteria identified by CASN. After the self-report was completed, four external reviewers from other nursing schools in Canada, but outside of Alberta, visited both the U of L and the College.

“The reviewers met with students in the classroom and at their clinical sites, partners in the community, faculty members, and senior administrators at both institutions and in the health system,” says Hosgood.

“The support of our external partners cannot be over-stated,” says Bardock. “Health environments across southern Alberta that provide practice-based opportunities for our students are as invested in their success as we are.”

Programs like NESA, where students spend the first two years at Lethbridge College and the final two years at the U of L, aren’t uncommon. However, the level of collaboration between the College and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is unique, says Hosgood. The collective approach to the program means both sides share knowledge and resources, with a focus on excellence and student success.

The NESA program was launched in 2002 and is celebrating a decade of graduating students in 2016.

50 Voices research project gathering steam

caroline.zentner — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 18:26:13 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, as central as it is to the fabric of southern Alberta, means something different to each person who has walked its hallways.

What better way to commemorate the U of L’s 50th anniversary than by giving those who have been part of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s journey the chance to tell their stories? That’s the idea behind the 50 Voices research project by the Centre for Oral History and Tradition (COHT), led by Dr. Chris Hosgood, a historian and co-chair of the 50^th anniversary steering committee, Professor Emeritus Dr. Jim Tagg, Mike Perry, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ archivist, Dr. Heidi MacDonald, a history professor, and Tracy McNab, project manager.

“There’s not one story of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge,” says MacDonald, COHT director. “The great thing about oral history is that people interpret their own experience. The goal here is diversity.”

“The objective is to attain a richness and multiplicity of voices,” says McNab (BASc ’81, MA ’09). “We’re looking for voices from all populations, including students, professors, staff, community members, and alumni. We want to include everyone, from the movers and shakers to the ones we should know about but don’t. We want to get a flavour of what the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ has been like these last 50 years.”

Tagg has already captured some of that flavour in the interviews recorded for the First Generation Oral History Project. Those interviews focused on the formative years at the U of L and include such gems as the story of how Dr. Dennis Connolly, a longtime mathematics professor, joined the ranks of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

Connolly found himself stranded in Lethbridge in April 1967 when a blizzard shut down travel across southern Alberta. He knew nothing of Lethbridge then; it was merely a stopover on his way from Yellowstone National Park to Banff.

“I’ve never seen so much snow in my life. It was five feet of snow within a day or two. They were feeding cattle with helicopters,” he says.

Being stuck in a motel, Connolly found a copy of the Lethbridge Herald and read an article about the new ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ opening in a couple of months. With nothing else to do, Connolly made his way to the college campus to have a look.

“I put in an application,” he says, adding he thought he’d work for a year or two before doing a doctoral degree. “I thought it would be a new start and I’d be a professor all of a sudden.”

Excerpts from some of the First Generation recordings will be used in the 50 Voices project, complemented by additional interviews with other voices, like that of Sheila Matson, a U of L employee since 1968. She started in the registrar’s office when the U of L was still in its infancy.

“It was a really cool time. We were in little trailers over on the south side just at the corner where you turn to go the Enmax Centre,” she says. “I’m a people person and the thing I’ve loved about the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is interacting with faculty and staff and students.”

Matson has been an administrator in almost every department on campus, from anthropology to student awards, and she’s watched the U of L become the dynamic place it is today. She didn’t hesitate to participate in the 50 Voices project.

“I was absolutely stunned, first of all, to even be asked. It’s a remarkable undertaking, especially for the 50 Voices to represent the diversity of this place,” says Matson. “I feel thrilled and very proud to be asked to contribute.”

To ensure a breadth of voices is included, the 50 Voices final project will feature equal numbers of interviews with men and women, represent all of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s constituency groups and cover the entire U of L timeline.

“We want a variety of stories from all walks, so the process is extremely difficult. We have literally tens of thousands of people from whom to choose. It’s been a tough job for us,” says MacDonald.

“It’s a considered effort and a lot of work has gone into looking at the people who have been brought forward. We’ve had suggestions from all over and we are still accepting suggestions,” says McNab.

Since 50 Voices is a research project, approval from the Human Subject Research Committee was sought and granted. Students are involved in the project through Applied Studies placements. In addition to selecting excerpts from the First Generation interviews, they will participate in interviewing new subjects. The end result will be a webpage with a photo of each participant, a short biography and a link to an audio excerpt from their interview. The interview excerpts will be less than five minutes long, but the full interviews will be available through ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Archives.

“Through these interviews we’re also building sources and preserving materials for future scholars,” says MacDonald. “Oral history, more than other kinds of history, is democratic and grassroots, bottom up. It shows that history is completely dependent on one’s perspective. We don’t believe in a single narrative. We think 50 Voices will, to some extent, give 50 histories.”

Suggestions are welcome and can be submitted by email to tracy.mcnab@uleth.ca.

UNews - Dr. Chris Hosgood

Longtime nursing educator to receive Friends of Health Sciences Award

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