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A Kamloops professor launches new website to provide support to new and practicing nurses

Support website for nurses

Nursing the Future officially launched this week as a support website for nurses the way founder, and Thompson Rivers University (TRU) professor, Dr. Judy Duchscher, intended. 

This program remains near and dear to Duchscher’s heart, after originally launching it back in 2003 as a way to support and inform Canadian nurses. 

“I conceived Nursing the Future in 2003, the original Nursing the Future, and it was actually at the bedside of my father who was dying,” Duchscher tells Castanet. “I realized care that was being provided was not coordinated, was not about compassion and intelligent approaches to care. That they [nurses] weren’t being afforded the kind of latitude for decision making and care practices that they should have been.” 

At the time, Duchscher was a Masters student doing her graduate research and realized the potential a support system for both new graduates and practicing nurses could be impactful. 

“I had discovered that in fact the transition to practice was really problematic for many new graduates. It was stressful, confusing, it was disorienting, and it was in that period that they were very vulnerable,” Duchscher said. 

For 14 years Duchscher ran the program as a non-profit, then stepped away from it for personal reasons, though she always kept an eye on the program. 

Once COVID-19 swept the globe, Duchscher knew this program's impact and performance was vital for the survival of new graduates entering the health care system. 

Being a professor for both the undergraduate and graduate levels of nursing, Duchscher saw the residual effects of the pandemic within the education of nurses. 

“I saw the dramatic change, the pulling out of students from practical experiences, the tremendous stress, uncertainty and anxiety that was playing out in the grass roots areas,” Duchscher recalls. 

The pandemic re-launched Nursing the Future, allowing for a request of funding from the federal government.  

“So I wrote a proposal to the Canadian Nurses Association and the Canadian Nurses Foundation and got funding in July,” the TRU professor said. “And it is the version of Nursing the Future that I always wanted.”

Teaching at TRU, Duchscher sees first hand the effect the pandemic has had, especially on recent graduates and current nursing students here in Kamloops. 

“Covid has exacerbated all of that [stress]. It’s just ramped up the intensity of the environment within which all nurses are working but into which new nurses are transitioning,” describes Duchscher. 

The website provides a huge network of resources, like a platform to connect with educators, social and professional support, educational resources and information, to name a few. 

To connect a recent graduate, a family member or a nurse practitioner to the website click here.



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