November 1999

The Douglas College Newsletter m@ New Westminster Campus, David Lam Campus & Thomas Haney Campus

IN

Douglas College

 

 

Health Sciences instructor and Education Technology Coordinator Susan
Greathouse explains her on-line course to Hungarian nursing educators who

visited the College in October.

na nation striving to rebuild itself, Douglas College
|: helping to rebuild the health education system.
Working in a project funded by the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA), Health
Sciences and Prior Learning Assessment and
Recognition (PLAR) faculty are assisting Hungarian

Thank you from Darlene

Darlene Kress (Science and Math) and her
family would like to thank everyone at the
College who donated to the memorial bench
commemorating her son Jason, who died
November 23, 1998 in a plane crash. Jason, a
former employee of Douglas College, was a
student at the University College of the Fraser
Valley and received a posthumous Associate of
Arts Degree this past June. The bench, located
at Flight Path Park in Richmond, was installed
September 27, The Kress family is also in the
process of establishing an endowment fund in
Jason’s name through the College Foundation.

 

educators to refurbish
nursing education and
training in their country.

“Most of Hungary's
current nurses were
trained from ages 14-17
within the high school
system. There are about
30,000 nurses who don’t
function as independently
as Canadian nurses, but
must work under
supervision, primarily of
doctors,” says Health
Sciences Dean Joy
Holmwood. “The
ultimate goal of our
project is to help reform
the nursing education
system and produce a
large pool of nurses with a

high degree of qualifications, including Baccalaureate
degrees. Under the Hungarian system, the nurses with
degrees will then be qualified to train other nurses.”

Four instructors and two administrators from Douglas
College presented three weeks of workshops in
Hungary in September, while Hungarian educators

visited Douglas College and local health facilities fora techniques.

Wine and dine to support

student bursaries

The Douglas College
Foundation invites you to
A Class Act, their annual
wine tasting event, being
held November 10 at the
Executive Inn, Coquitlam.
Sample fine wines from
throughout the region
while dining on canapes
and hors d’oeuvres
prepared by students from
our very own Hotel and
Restaurant Management
Program. The evening is

capped off with live and
silent auctions. Tickets are
$40 each including GST,
and a portion of the
proceeds will help fund
bursaries for students in
the Hotel and Restaurant
Management Program.
For more information and
tickets, call Karen in the
Foundation Office at
527-5876. Last year’s
tickets went quickly, so
call soon!

Educational policies now available on-line

The revised educational policies are now available on the Douglas College home page at www.douglas.bc.ca under
Governance and Administration — College Policies. Once displayed, any of the policies can be printed out using
the print function of your browser. Faculty should update their copy of the Curriculum Guidelines Policy as it has
undergone further editing to make it clearer and easier to read. Other policies which you might wish to look at
include the Program Approval Policy for new and revised credit programs and the Grading policy. Scan the
alphabetical table of contents for other policies of interest and relevance to your area.

week of training in October.

“The Hungarians still use the traditional lecture model,
so they were very interested to know how we teach with
a concept basis with an emphasis on the learner,” says
Holmwood. “They are also intrigued by our use of
computers, and I found that underlined another
difference between our systems. Hungary is a very
literate society, they revere books and rely on them
heavily in instruction, whereas we tend to question
information and assume that some sections of books
may be out-of-date on the day they are published. So,
while the use of computers is slowly coming, they were
fascinated by the presentation of Susan Greathouse’s on-
line course.”

Introducing PLAR will be a major step by making it
easier for current nurses to gain credits towards a degree
based on their knowledge and experience. The
Hungarian Ministry of Education then plans to apply
the PLAR model to other training sectors.

In addition to Holmwood, the College project team
features Carol Ebner-Howorth (PLAR), Susan
Greathouse (Educational Technology), Bev Miller
(Dean of Child, Family and Community Studies), and
Linda Pickthall and Norma Goldie (General Nursing
faculty). Besides PLAR, team members also shared their
expertise in classroom, clinical and online teaching

Popular speaker
addresses students

   

A CFCS student engages Phil Allen in conversation
after his presentation on disability issues.

On October 12, Phil Allen addressed two groups of
Child, Family and Community Studies students. Allen,
who specializes in disability issues, has been speaking at
Douglas College for 10 years, covering topics such as
human rights, institutions, community living and self-
advocacy. The audience included students from Child
and Youth Care, Classroom and Community Support,
Early Childhood Education, Sign Language Interpreter
and Community Support Social Worker programs.

 

Quote of the Month

"Sometimes being pushed to the wall gives you the momentum necessary to get over it!"

Peter de Jager