Award Description

To support individuals who are enrolled in nursing education at the baccalaureate level. Preference will be given to Post-Diploma RNs, and RPNs who demonstrate potential to contribute to the advancement of nursing.

Origin

The Regina Borowska Scholarship was established through Ms. Borowska’s estate.

Honoree Background

Regina’s friends and colleagues will remember her as a dedicated professional, a curious world traveller, a lover of the arts and a fascinating conversationalist. Regina’s career spanned one of the major changes in the history of nursing education in Canada.

Born in Latvia, Regina completed her secondary school education in Germany. She trained in General Nursing and Midwifery in a hospital-based school of Nursing in New Zealand. Arriving in Canada, Regina received reciprocal registration in Ontario. In 1959, Regina completed a one-year program and was awarded the University of Toronto Certificate in Hospital Nursing Service. With this background, Regina enrolled at McGill University School of Nursing, obtaining the designation of Bachelor of Nursing in 1961.

Regina held several nursing administrative positions during her career: Head Nurse of a surgical unit at the then Cambridge General Hospital, Cambridge, Ontario; Assistant Director of the Nursing Unit Administration (NUA)* program; and what was known then as the Hospital Operating Standards Branch of the Ontario Hospital Services Commission. The OHSC subsequently folded into the Ministry of Health and became the Institutional Division of the Ministry of Health. In this position, Regina advised the Commission and the hospitals in the transition from three-year hospital-based nursing programs to Regional programs including the “Two plus One” program. This was the first step in the evolution of hospital-based programs from service or training models toward educational models. This prepared the programs for their eventual move of nursing programs from the Ministry of Health into the Ministry of Colleges and Universities.

In her work, Regina was meticulous. Responsible for the health care programs in the Ministry of Colleges and Universities she ensured that each program met the rigid standards necessary to protect the student and the recipient of care. Regina was a nurse and a health care educator. In all that she did, she was a professional of the highest order.

*The NUA program, jointly sponsored by the Canadian Nurses Association and the Canadian Hospital Association, was a one-year correspondence program with a final intramural session. The NUA program gave many nurses their first opportunity toward post-graduate education and assisted hospitals in upgrading their leadership skill base.