Nursing Week was celebrated at Red River College on May 12-16th. Nursing students and instructors collaborated to put on a number of informative displays related to the field of nursing in the main hallway outside the library. A pizza lunch was also held with funds raised going back to the student in the form of a scholarship fund. There was an overwhelming turnout and a big thank you to all who participated to make this annual event a huge success.

RRC Nursing Faculty Members Kim Fraser and Nancy Ball demonstrate the Virtual Nursing community Project to RRC President Stephanie Forsyth during the Nursing Week events, May 16th, 2014.
Journey North is an interactive tour of a Health Canada nursing station located on Bloodvein First Nation in northern Manitoba. Click here for more info: http://blogs.rrc.ca/etv/wp-content/uploads/jnpreview/home.html

Nursing Faculty, Bonnie Peers, and Tara Roberts display their poster presentation highlighting features of the Rural BN program at the Red River College

Jennifer Johnson, Nursing Lab Manager. Display some of the equipment used in the Nursing techniques lab.

Nursing Students put on a Pizza Fundraiser on May 16th, in the library Hallway. Proceeds will go towards a Student Council Scholarship fund

Nursing Students speak out for Social justice. Photo Essay assignment.

Nursing Students put on a Pizza Fundraiser on May 16th, in the library Hallway. Proceeds will go towards a Student Council Scholarship fund

Today! Feed your body and mind!

Come by the Library hallway from 12:00 to 1:00 TODAY (Monday May 12th and Friday May 16th) for a pizza lunch and poster display as we celebrate National Nursing Week.

See what it is nursing faculty and students do in the preparation of knowledgeable, competent and caring health professionals!

Come check out the booths, information, and displays reflecting the positive impacts nurses make on the lives and well-being of Canadians.

Scholarly writing is a crucial component in the advancement of scholarship in the nursing profession. The grading process for scholarly papers can be one of the most time consuming roles of nursing instruction, creating a wide range of frustrations and rewards. In assigning scholarly papers, students are asked to juggle multiple domains of learning at various levels of thinking: research skills, interpretation and understanding of facts and knowledge, analysis and synthesis, writing competence, creativity, acknowledgement of sources, and correct application of a style guide such as APA format. The role of grader demands an instructor then places a value on the students’ implementation of these multifaceted skills in the form of a percentage and/or letter grade, and provide narrative feedback to promote further development of the student’s writing skills. Receiving this feedback can be an emotional experience for the student.

This presentation was shared among Nursing educators from all over Western Canada at the WNRCASN conference, held at the Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg MB on Feb 19-21st, 2014. It was hosted by Red River College, Nursing Department.

The demonstration utilized examples from student work to illustrate the quickest method of evaluating student writing and providing meaningful, concise feedback.

A Presentation from WNRCASN

By Kim Mitchell RN MN

Nursing Instructor

Welcome to Journey North

In collaboration with eTV and Health Canada, members of River College Faculty of Nursing produced Journey North: A Virtual Nursing Experience. Journey North is an interactive tour of a Health Canada nursing station located on Bloodvein First Nation in northern Manitoba. The project, initially supported by a Program Innovation Fund (PIF) authored by Nancy Ball and Kim Fraser, was developed “to create a virtual community that will invite the millennial nursing student to explore, discover and understand the role of a Community Health Nurse in a remote/rural health care setting that is not geographically available to students in the RRC Nursing program” (PIF application, 2012/2013).

The Faculty of Nursing, eTV and Health Canada are all excited for the potential of this project as well as future endeavors and partnerships in interactive learning environments. Please click on the image below to view the project.

Please join us for Nursing Week Celebrations in the Library Hallway 

Monday May 12th and Friday May 16th from 12:00 to 1:00 

for a Pizza Fundraiser Lunch and displays

as we celebrate National Nursing Week

plus                                                               

Lunch Hour Friday May 2nd

Students and faculty are invited to come practice your painting/art skills! Please stop by from 12:00-1:00 Friday, May 2nd in the library hallway to help paint 3 or 4 Large Banners and sandwich boards to put up across doorways in Mall level halls and to distribute around the campus.

Karen Wall, the Chair of the Nursing Department, is set to retire at the end of the month. A college-wide retirement reception was held in her honour on April 4th with many past and present co-workers, friends and family in attendance. Colleagues from near and far were in attendance from the WRHA, University of Manitoba, St. Boniface University, The Advisory Committee, CRNM, and David Gregory, the past Dean of the Nursing Department at the University of Manitoba. Karen has led the nursing department at Red River College for over 15 years, although she has been a part of the department for over 35 years. She will be sadly missed by all who had the pleasure of working with and for Karen, as she demonstrated grace, compassion and professionalism in her role as the head of the nursing department. Karen will leave a legacy in her departure, including seeing the first-ever Nursing Degree class graduate from Red River College this past year.

Everyone at the college wishes Karen a wonderful retirement, including taking much deserved time for herself and pursuing personal opportunities. Enjoy Karen! You will be missed.

( Pictures by Leslie Walsh)

Red River College, Nursing Department staff and students participated in a Mock disaster.

In September 2013, the Manitoba Health, Office of Disaster Management conducted a mock evacuation of a 75 bed acute care hospital, as well as a 30 bed personal care home from a Northern Health Region in MB.

This was a large, cooperative exercise involving 189 individuals from 62 separate stakeholder groups. Third year RRC nursing students (seen in grey uniforms) and faculty; Lillian Mugweni and Alison Fyfe-Carlson, had an opportunity to practice skills of triage, disaster management and communication with other health departments in the development of an Interim Medical Treatment Facility (IMTF).

An IMTF is a temporary facility that is created to receive a large amount of patients, triage them and provide care while they wait to be placed in an appropriate facility within the health care system.

MB Health considered all of the feedback from stakeholders and developed an “After Action Report/Improvement Plan”.  MB Health plans to look at other collaborative IMTF exercises such as a Trauma Event Scenario in the future.

This was an excellent learning opportunity for RRC Nursing students and faculty.

Active triage

Heather Day, the inaugural winner of the Nursing Gold Medal for Excellence is pictured here with the chair of the Nursing Department, Karen Wall. The prestigious award was handed out on Februaury 4th, 2014 at the Red River College Graduation.

This evening saw over one hundred students from the initial three year Nursing Degree class from Red River College graduate with faculty, friends and family present to honour their achievements.

Congratulations Heather! We wish you all the best as you embark on your exciting new career.

Winnipeg has been in the news a lot this winter because of our current run of cold temperatures. While this may make for some stimulating (albeit whining) discussion at lunch, there are some very real concerns as a result of the frigid cold…….. finding warmth for the homeless.

Siloam Mission is a Christian humanitarian organization that alleviates hardships and provides opportunities for change for those affected by homelessness. They currently have an urgent need for warm socks. The Nursing Department wanted to find a way to help. And so, at the recent WNRCASN (Western North-Western Region Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing) conference, we provided conference delegates with the opportunity to help meet that need. Delegates were asked to bring a pair (or more) of new sports/work socks with them to the conference. Or, to “purchase” socks (generously donated by Walmart – Unicity) that were available at the conference.

We accumulated about 400 pairs of socks and collected $448.75!

health fair

3rd year nursing students held a Health Fair in the Library Hallway Wednesday February 12th, 2014.

This was an assignment in their Epidemiology and Illness prevention class.

With their instructor’s, students brought their coursework to life.

Year 3 Nursing Students, Epidemiology and Illness prevention

This course focuses on concepts, research and practices associated with epidemiology, the prevention of chronic illness and injury prevention. It involves public health strategies for reducing health risk and the nurse’s role in the promotion of health and the primary and secondary prevention of illness.