UNews - ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Bachelor

Community care

trevor.kenney — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:54:10 +0000

They are former airline pilots, Olympic athletes, police recruits and liquor store managers. They've earned degrees ranging from kinesiology to biology, psychology and more, and yet they all have one thing in common – they're back at university to become nurses.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Bachelor of Nursing After Degree (BNAD) program attracts a diverse array of students, but the goal they share is the same – to contribute to the community by caring for its people.

"When the U of L introduced the BNAD program, it was perfect for me because I looked at it as an opportunity to invest two years and then get back to helping people," says 31-year-old Justin Gatner, a psychology grad who was managing a liquor store before he came back to the U of L.

BNAD student, Sarah Calnan, works with a resident of Martha's House during a free clinic offered by the U of L program.

The Monarch, Alta. native was on a path to become a police officer, having also earned his criminal justice diploma from Lethbridge College, before a broken leg dashed his hopes of passing the physical requirements for the job.

"I reassessed my world and started looking around at other careers where I could still help people," says Gatner. "Some of the options included were fire fighting and working as an EMT, but nursing was also a part of that."

The BNAD program has many similar stories, graduate students who have acquired experience by being out in the workforce, and then turned their focus to nursing. One of the faculty members helping them achieve their goal is Em Pijl-Zieber, who, like her students, found community nursing after having taken a different path.

A registered nurse who previously worked in advanced practice, Pijl-Zieber never saw herself working in a community-nursing role, and as for teaching, she jokingly calls herself the "accidental professor".

"I never wanted to teach and yet I've found that it's really a lot of fun," says Pijl-Zieber, a Vancouver native who followed her husband and fellow faculty member, Mark, to Alberta. "To inspire students to greatness is always my hope. I want them to get passionate about something."

With Pijl-Zieber, students are able to take knowledge learned in the classroom into community settings. They now provide a unique level of care to homeless and marginalized populations, as well as seniors in assisted living residences.

One of the initiatives in which they are involved is a foot-care program that Pijl-Zieber began three years ago.

The program initially had her students involved with homeless persons utilizing Streets Alive, and has grown to where her students now participate in Project Homeless Connect, are active in visiting long-term care facilities in both Lethbridge and Coaldale, and will set up outpatient clinics for drop-in foot-care services.

"The work that students do during this course is often not bedside nursing, as much as it is program planning and population health promotion," says Pijl-Zieber. "By doing the foot-care clinics, students can have that interaction with members of the population. They like it because they can practice one-to-one care, something that's hands-on and practical. It's why they went into nursing in the first place – to do real things with real people."

Foot care is a real concern for homeless and marginalized populations. They generally have little access to health services, are constantly on their feet with inadequate footwear and may suffer from aggravating health concerns such as diabetes. Frostbite, ingrown toenails and other problems, if left untreated, can lead to amputations.

"Who else is going to look after their feet? Our goal is to be able to do a proper assessment and then to provide foot care so that hopefully they can keep their limbs attached," she says.

This past year, the foot-care program took her group into Martha's House seniors' residence.

"I've been very pleasantly surprised with what they've brought to us," says registered nurse Elda Barva, Martha's House administrator and the previous director of care at St. Michael's Hospital. "They are very motivated, they have some life experience behind them and they've come in here and taken this place by storm."

More than simply providing foot care clinics, the students created an entire health-care program for the facility, breaking off into four groups (health promotion, injury prevention, illness prevention and health maintenance) of focus.

"Em is phenomenal in creating a bunch of opportunities that we never really expected," says Sarah Calnan, a biology grad in her second year of BNAD.
"Our goal when we came here was to ensure that what we were doing was sustainable to the seniors in the future. We're hoping that everything each of our groups has worked towards, they can continue to do after we leave."

Calnan worked with the health maintenance group that created a health resource manual and facilitated a "Puzzled About Pills" seminar in which they helped seniors understand how to best manage the many medications they use.

Vicki Hughes, a kinesiology graduate, worked with the health promotion group. Their focus was to help seniors better utilize the exercise room, educate about fall prevention strategies and help implement a program designed around the new vibration wave machine that promotes better balance, strength and circulation.

"The main thing for me with this experience is that it has really prepared me for nursing in terms of improving my communication skills," says Hughes. "We came in here to assess their needs, and working with them and empowering them has been wonderful."

The BNAD program doesn't just teach nursing, it promotes the basic tenets of care and contributing to the betterment of a community.

"When we are given these kinds of opportunities to come and work with these people, we're basically practising that community element of nursing," says Gatner. "When you work with the nursing program inside the community rotation, it gets you out the front door and into the world, helping people. That's always what I've wanted to do."

This story first appeared in the Legend. For a full look at the January issue of the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

CMA accreditation for Faculty of Management

trevor.kenney — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:00:51 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Bachelor of Management (Accounting) Program has been given the stamp of approval from the Canadian Management Accountants Society. And while CMA accreditation indicates a certain level of quality, it also grants students a fast track opportunity to hit the ground running after graduation.

"To pass CMA Canada's rigorous requirements speaks highly of the quality of our program, faculty and students," says Dr. Murray Lindsay, FCMA, Dean of the Faculty of Management. "Our students clearly benefit from our program's accreditation. Having more people trained in strategic management accounting also benefits the business community."

Students who successfully complete the Bachelor of Management (Accounting) Program with a minimum grade point average of 75 per cent are exempt from writing the CMA Entrance Examination.

This select group of students will enter directly into the Strategic Leadership Program, the final step required to obtain the CMA designation.

"The accreditation relationship between academic institutions and CMA Canada is based on a co-operative process that provides an opportunity to meet the expectations of all stakeholders: students, employers, the management accounting profession and the government," says David Shaw, CMA, President and Chief Executive Officer of CMA Alberta.

"In addition, the CMA accreditation program enhances the stature and recognition of academic institutions, thus making them attractive to students with many competitive choices."

The CMA accreditation is for a five-year period. Thomas emphasized that CMA Canada accreditation of programs at leading academic institutions sets the standard for quality education in business and accounting in Canada.

"The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge exemplifies this standard and is to be commended for the outstanding quality of its instruction and its graduates," Thomas says.

Profiting from a U of L friendship

trevor.kenney — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:53:13 +0000

Sometimes the best-laid plans never see the light of day. Sometimes, they just need a little more time on the shelf.

Russ MacKay (BMgt '90) and Anil Tahiliani (BMgt '90), graduates of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Bachelor of Management program, are now senior partners at McLean & Partners, one of Canada's most respected, high net worth private-client wealth management firms. But it was back in 1990 where a friendship and future working relationship was cemented while writing a business plan to open a convenience store in the yet-to-be-built Students Union Building at the U of L.

"The project-based group work in the Bachelor of Management program is what cemented the relationship, both personal and professional, between Anil and myself, and this is what brought us back together 10 years after grad," says MacKay, noting the plan they developed was never enacted. "Now look at us: we work 10 feet apart from one another."

The route the two took after graduating from the U of L was divergent at first but with their degrees intact, it provided each with a wealth of opportunity.

MacKay initially pursued a career in media, working his way to sales manager at two Lethbridge radios station while Tahiliani moved on to the Alberta Treasury Finance Department.

After four years in media, MacKay moved to Calgary, launching a new career with the investment firm Burns Fry. His career in the high net worth investment industry continued to the point where he became a founding partner of McLean & Partners Wealth Management.

Tahiliani took a decidedly different path. One year into his career with the provincial government, he took a brief eight-month leave of absence to complete an MBA, returning to the Alberta Treasury Investment Management Department.

When Tahiliani left in 1994, he was recognized as the youngest manager in their history. From there, he moved on to an analyst position with Bissett and Associates, before moving to Phoenix in 1997 as CFO for a nutritional health-care provider. After completing both a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and CIM (Canadian Investment Manager) designation, Tahiliani moved on to build his own company, a two-year old start-up ISP, which became a highly successful business before it was purchased by NetZero.

In 2000, Tahiliani returned to Canada and reunited with his former study partner, this time creating a business plan with real dollars at stake. Starting with $275 million in assets, he, MacKay and the firm put the plan to the test. It passed, as over the next eight years, McLean & Partners would grow into one of Calgary's most recognized investment practices, with over $1 billion in assets. It all started at the U of L.

"I liked the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge for the ability to make lifelong friends, such as Russ," Tahiliani says. "The liberal arts environment gave me a much more rounded education not typically found in the finance world. I now feel I have a more complete view of the world, and this greatly helps me working for a firm that specializes in global investing."

GET THE FACTS

• Both MacKay and Tahiliani met their future wives on the U of L campus. MacKay married Karen McCune (BEd '87), while Tahiliani married Terry Bourassa (BEd '89)

• While in the media business, MacKay worked as sales manager at Monarch Broadcasting and Shaw Communications

• Tahiliani was brought into McLean & Partners in 2000 when the firm created a research department, and he was recruited as the Head of Research

UNews - ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Bachelor

Community care

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CMA accreditation for Faculty of Management

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Profiting from a U of L friendship

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UNews - ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Bachelor