UCalgary Nursing brings large contingent to Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing conference

Next week, nursing educators, researchers and students from across Canada will be in Calgary for the 2024 CASN Biennial Canadian Nursing Education Conference and representation from UCalgary Nursing is stronger than ever.  

In addition to being a prestige sponsor for this year’s conference, the faculty’s graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff are prominent presenters at CASN. Dr. Heather Bensler, assistant dean, academic partnerships, is co-chair of this year’s conference and Dr. Sandra Davidson, dean, is also a volunteer and moderator.  

This year’s theme is Transforming Nursing Education: Unlearning, Disrupting, & (Re)Learning. 

“Our goal is to create a forum for nurse educators to critically reflect on the ways things have been done and dismantle and disrupt beliefs, practices, and structures that uphold colonial violence, oppression, and power,” says Bensler. 

This event, held at the Westin Calgary May 27 to 28, will bring together those working in nursing education to share research, innovations and best practices, all with the goal of transforming the education of the next generation of Canadian nurses.  

Sessions at the conference will explore dismantling harmful colonial legacies, taking action to promote social justice and equity, fostering diversity and inclusion and re-imagining nursing within an evolving societal and technological context.  

Several Indigenous Elders affiliated with UCalgary Nursing including Doreen Spence and Herman Yellow Old Woman will be onsite to open the conference and to provide cultural care support and a few undergraduate nursing students will volunteering in Elder support roles. On both days, Amanda Loates and Dr. Jacqueline Smith from UCalgary Nursing’s Mental Health and Wellness Clinic are also offering conference attendees mental health support.  

Here’s a summary of the presentations offered by the UCalgary Nursing community: 

Monday, May 27 

• Welcome Indigenous opening prayer 
  Elder Doreen Spence and Elder Herman Yellow Old Woman 

Presentations by UCalgary Nursing faculty and students 

• Academic Success in Non-University-Affiliated Polytechnic Nursing Programs  
  Harroop Sharda 
• Exploring the Evaluation of Leadership Competencies in Undergraduate Nursing Education: A Scoping Review  
  Jodie Steffan 
• A virtual caring competency framework for nursing education  
  Lorelli Nowell 
  Sara Dolan 
• Improving students’ confidence to support mental health: An interprofessional virtual simulation for therapeutic communication  
  Amanda O’Rae 
  Michelle Cullen 
  Melissa Eastveld 
• UPLIFT (Undergraduate Peer Leadership in Family Nursing Teams): a cross institutional educational innovation in peer mentorship  
  Diana Snell 
• This Storied Place: From pre-contact to resurgence, a participatory activity  
  Michelle Scott 
  Heather Bensler 
• Examining the experience of recurrent acute coronary syndrome in younger men  
  Nancy Clark 

Tuesday, May 28 

• Two-Eyed Seeing in Nursing Education: Understanding the experience of stigma in Métis mothers with Alcohol Use Disorder  
  Melissa Eastveld 
• Iiyikinaami: Lessons learned from the BN Program at Old Sun Community College 
  Heather Bensler 
  Michelle Scott 
  Debbie Smith, Old Sun Community College  
  Kim Halliday 
• Building the case for co-collaborative case studies: connecting family nursing to students lived experiences  
  Diana Snell 
  Amanda O’Rae 
• A Peer Mentor Program for Undergraduate Nursing Students' Mental Health  
  Jodie Steffan 
  Kimberly Shapkin 
  Amanda Loates 
• Grounded theory about nursing students learning transfer from classroom to clinical practice: implications for nursing education  
  Sandra Carless-Kane 
  Lorelli Nowell 
• Transforming teaching and learning experiences in nursing education using Turk Talks  Tanis Robinson, University of Regina  
  Michelle Cullen 
• Transdisciplinary work integrated learning: An innovative approach to virtual clinical practice  
  Stacy Oke 
  Amanda O’Rae
• Embodying Kisêwâtisiwin  
  Michelle Scott 
  Heather Bensler 
  Grandmother Doreen Spence 
• Educating for an evolving context at Alberta Health Services: the registered nurse prescribing initiative  
  Kirnvir Dhaliwal, Alberta Health Sciences  
  Julia Hews-Girard, Alberta Health Sciences 
• The Alliance against Violence and Adversity (AVA): The Canadian Institutes of Health Research Training Platform and Women’s and Girls’ Health Hub  
  Nicole Letourneau 
• Addressing increasing acuity in healthcare: an innovation in intravenous skills education 
  Megan Keszler