Five faculty members of UBC's School of Nursing were honoured by the Registered Nurses Association of B.C. (RNABC) at a ceremony last month.
Assoc. Prof. Carol Jillings received an Award of Distinction in Nursing, Assoc. Prof. Joan Bottorff received an Award of Excellence in Nursing Research, Asst. Prof. Alison Rice received an Award of Excellence in Nursing Practice and Clinical Asst. Prof. Marion Clauson received an Award of Excellence in Nursing Education. Prof. Emerita Marilyn Willman received an Honorary Membership in RNABC.
Willman is credited with starting important new programs while head of the School of Nursing including expansion of the Master of Nursing program. She also helped establish a nursing research unit at UBC which allowed faculty to plan a doctoral nursing program--only the third in Canada.
Carol Jillings has conducted extensive research into nursing patients with cardiovascular disease. She has assisted many schools of nursing with the revision and development of curricula.
Joan Bottorff's research explores how health professionals support and enhance health promotion through interaction and communication with families and communities. She recently received a National Health Research Scholar Award from Health Canada to fund her research for five years.
Alison Rice was recognized for her pioneering work in midwifery. A practising midwife in the first pilot project of an in-hospital nurse-midwifery service in Canada, she has continued to practice midwifery in the hospital setting, educating hospital-based nurse-midwives.
Marion Clauson's award was given for her outstanding teaching ability and her innovation in teaching approaches, such as using a talk show format with a roving microphone. She is presently working on developing a distance education course in prenatal nursing.