On a cloudy morning Wednesday, May 9, 2012, a small group of local media, community professionals, and Trent faculty from the Trent/Fleming School of Nursing gathered to mark big achievements in the school over the past year and to celebrate National Nursing Week. The group was all smiles as they waited for a break in the rain, and enthusiasm was high in spite of the weather. “There’s always a lot going on here,” observed Dr. Beryl Cable-Williams, an instructor with the school, to the nods and laughs of her colleagues.
Amongst her many other roles, Professor Cable-Williams is co-president of the local chapter of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), and was on hand that morning to present the school with a donation towards its growing bursary. “A number of us on the faculty here just happen to also be active members in the RNAO so we brought this forward to the local chapter as a worthy project. The decision was made then that we would support it and we’ve renewed that commitment each year for the last four years,” explained Prof. Cable-Williams.
For Prof. Cable-Williams, however, financial support is just one of the many ways in which the close relationship between the Trent/Fleming program and the RNAO benefits the school and its students. “The RNAO is the professional voice for nursing in the province and unless people begin hearing about it as students, they may almost be unaware of it when they graduate. Here at the school we start introducing the role of the RNAO in first year and try and encourage students to see its significance for them personally as professional nurses, and to the profession as a whole.”
Most recently this relationship has resulted in the Trent/Fleming School of Nursing being designated the first Best Practice Spotlight Organization in Canada. A new initiative funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the Best Practices initiative is a rigorous program that focuses on making a positive impact on patient care in the province by evaluating and implementing internationally recognized nursing best practices.
David McNeil, past-president of the RNAO who joined the faculty to mark National Nursing Week celebrations, explained: “This designation is something to be extremely proud of. It is a signal to the profession, but also to the community and the students you serve that you are assuming best practices in nursing education.” Prof. Cable-Williams agreed: “Nurses who aren’t familiar with the initiative when they graduate have a whole process of becoming aware of and then making a decision to champion best practices in nursing. Our goal with our Spotlight Organization initiative was to have our graduates be champions for evidence-informed practice when they graduate so that they’re already on board – not looking for the ship.”
In addition to the Best Practices designation, announced just last week, the school was also riding high on its last accreditation, which resulted in the highest level of accreditation available. For former Dean Wendy Fucile, this accreditation was one of the highlights of her tenure. “Getting a seven-year award for accreditation was just a dream,” avowed Ms. Fucile. “To have that level of confidence in a new school was stunning.
But you don’t do any of this alone and without the team I had none of this would have happened. We’ve taken this young school to a place where it’s really ready to blossom.” The accreditation was just the last of a string of successes for Ms. Fucile who, in her role as the school’s first Dean, led the school through a complete revision of its curriculum, through its move from the science complex to the DNA building, and helped to build a top-notch team of academics and professionals to move the school forward.
Kristen Woodend, current Dean of the school praised Ms. Fucile for her work. “Wendy left the school with this wonderful foundation of a strong program with a strong collegial atmosphere. If I send out an email asking for help with something, everyone comes forward, and this is because of the work that Wendy has done in creating good structures, but a really good atmosphere to go with them. It’s one of the reasons I came to this school.”
With the rain letting up, the group headed outside where a tree had been planted to recognize Ms. Fucile’s work. “It’s a gingko tree,” explained Prof. Cable-Williams, “chosen because it’s a symbol of wisdom and it’s indestructible and those were characteristics we wanted to highlight with respect to Wendy.”
Posted on Friday, May 11, 2012.