Collectivité

Regina Grey Nuns' Hospital School of Nursing

The Regina Grey Nuns' Hospital School of Nursing was founded by Sister Cécilia Wagner in 1907, and four students graduated two years later. For many years, nursing education was taught as a three-year program of study, wherein theory was followed by lengthy practical experience, and students provided much of the nursing care on the wards. In 1939, the first Basic Science Instructor was hired for the School, and a Clinical Instructor and Educational Director were added in 1945 and 1949 respectively. The Medical Staff and Nursing Faculty Joint Committee was initiated in 1955, and the Advisory Committee to the School was organised in 1956. In 1962, an experimental education program was initiated by Sister T. Castonguay, Director of the School of Nursing, and accepted by the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association and Department of Public Health. For the first time in Saskatchewan, a shortened, two-year program was introduced. In 1966, the Nursing Education Act transferred the education of diploma nurses from the jurisdiction of the Department of Health to the Department of Education, leading to the establishment of central nursing education programs in Regina and Saskatoon, and the phasing out of hospital-based schools of nursing in the province. The last graduates of the School of Nursing completed their training on 31 August 1973 and the School of Nursing was closed.