2008 Merit Awards Recipients

In her position as director of hospice palliative and end of life care with the Fraser Health Authority, Carolyn Tayler has opened nine hospice residences in the region and overseen the development of a set of symptom management guidelines that were published in 2007. She has also participated in several expert working groups related to health care in B.C., and helped launch new projects to address education in the areas of national oncology nursing strategies and pain management.

Carolyn holds a bachelor of nursing from the University of Calgary, and a master of science in administration health services from Central Michigan University.

Diana Davidson Dick has held various front-line, academic, policy, program and executive positions in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and nationally with CNA. During her tenure as dean of nursing at SIAST, the school of nursing became the largest in Canada. She also initiated discussion with the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing on the need for major organizational change to reflect contemporary nursing education, and she has tirelessly promoted the advancement and increased participation of First Nations and aboriginal people in nursing education and the nursing workforce.

Diana has a bachelor of nursing science and a diploma in nursing administration from the University of Ottawa and a master’s in education from Queen’s University.

Marion Clark’s work experience spans various clinical practice, nursing management, nursing policy and nursing administration roles. She began her nursing career as a staff nurse and moved quickly to nursing management, assuming the role of director of nursing for Kings County Memorial Hospital in P.E.I. In 2003, she accepted the position of nursing policy consultant with the P.E.I. Department of Health, and during her time there she contributed to many significant pieces of work, including new legislation and regulation for registered nurses that included nurse practitioner as a new regulated category.

Marion holds a bachelor of science in nursing and certificate of public administration from the University of Prince Edward Island, and is currently completing her masters of science in nursing at the University of Ottawa.

Margaret Farley has been a practising RN for more than 25 years. She was a founding member of the Saskatchewan Operating Room Nurses Group, has served on the Operating Room Nurses Association of Canada board in varying positions for the past 12 years, and is at present a board member of the International Federation of Perioperative Nurses. She has actively contributed to the review and development of perioperative recommended standards, guidelines and position statements, and was recently a reviewer for the CNA 2008 perioperative nursing certification exam.

Margaret received her diploma in registered nursing from St. Boniface General Hospital in Manitoba, and is currently completing her post-diploma bachelor of science in nursing from the University of Saskatchewan.

Linda McGillis Hall joined the Lawrence S. Bloomberg faculty of nursing at the University of Toronto in 2000 and, in addition to being a tenured associate professor and associate dean, she is also a co-investigator with the Nursing Health Services Research Unit. She teaches courses on measuring nurse care effectiveness and the behaviour of individuals and groups in health-care organizations, and she developed and now serves as the program director of the combined master of nursing and master of health science administration program at the University of Toronto.

Linda earned her undergraduate degree in health administration from York University and her masters and doctorate degree in nursing administrative science from the University of Toronto.