A nursing student helping to create more public places for women to breastfeed their babies, and an agency that worked with nursing faculty to teach frontline police officers how to work with people with mental illness, are two of the winners at the Council of Ontario University Programs in Nursing (COUPN) annual awards.
Bahar Karbalaei is the recipient of the COUPN Award for Excellence in Professional Nursing Practice at the Undergraduate Student Level. A student in the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT)’s BScN program, Karbalaei is doing extracurricular research on the limited number of spaces to breastfeed that is leading to the creation of such spaces at UOIT and North York General Hospital.
The Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences receives the Agency Recognition Award for providing students with quality mental health placements and for its efforts with nursing faculty at UOIT and Durham Regional Police Service that aim to educate police about working with people with mental illness. The computer-based learning tool they developed with UOIT faculty is now part of mandatory training for several police forces, including the Ontario Provincial Police and Durham Regional Police.
“Skilled nurses will be more in demand than ever in Ontario as the Baby Boom generation ages,” says Dr. Catherine Tompkins, Chair of COUPN, and Associate Dean of Health Sciences and Director of the School of Nursing at McMaster University. “Our universities are giving nursing students the skills they need to provide the best possible health care for all Ontarians, and blazing a trail in innovation and research to ensure the practice of nursing in Ontario is second to none.”
Also recognized this year by COUPN is Frances Lamb, Director, Office of Health Sciences at the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), and a former manager at the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, who is receiving the Award for Strategic Contribution to Nursing Education. Lamb’s tremendous contribution to nursing education in Ontario includes her involvement in the creation of clinical education grants to universities and colleges, and the development of graduation tuition waivers to help more nursing faculty complete their PhDs, and as a result, advance nursing research and teaching.
The awards also recognize outstanding nursing faculty, staff and health program partners across Ontario. The sixth annual award ceremony takes place on April 25, 2013, at the Chestnut Residence and Conference Centre in Toronto.
Other winners of this year’s awards are:
- Doctoral Dissertation Award – Michelle Freeman, McMaster University
- Excellence in Teaching Award – Judy Bornais, University of Windsor
- Masters Student Award for Excellence – Cara-Lee Coghill, McMaster University
- Preceptor Recognition Award – Judi Wilson, University of Windsor
- Teaching Innovation Award – McMaster Mohawk Conestoga BScN Science Team
Click here for more information about the contribution of each recipient.
COU is a membership organization of 21 publicly assisted universities in Ontario. It works closely with the provincial and federal governments to shape public policies that help universities deliver high-quality programs for students, and the research and innovation that improves the social, cultural and economic well-being of Ontarians.
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