Marking National Nursing Week

From May 9 - 15, we take time to honour our incredible alumni and our current and future nursing leaders, and we celebrate the deep tradition of research and academic excellence in our Faculty of Nursing.

This year, we mark the 29th annual National Nursing Week, May 9-15. The Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta proudly joins with our colleagues and friends across the country to celebrate each other and our profession’s important contributions to the health-care journey of Canadians.

Our Faculty of Nursing—the top nursing school in the nation and ninth in the world according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject—is a hub for cultivating the nursing leaders of tomorrow. From our recently revised and updated undergraduate degree and after-degree programs to our nurse practitioner program, master of nursing and PhD (featuring a new curriculum), every experience is designed to prepare our learners to meet the demands of today and the challenges of the future.

The need for strong, capable and compassionate leaders in our field has never been greater. As we continue to adapt and shift to address a pandemic that shows no sign of disappearing, our Faculty of Nursing is readying the next generation of professionals who are built to face such complex and global health-care challenges.

Our dedicated community of instructors, a vast array of opportunities for hands-on learning, and innovative programming make the learning experience for our students second to none. But what truly sets us apart is our world-leading researchers, whose work inspires our graduate students and spans the full human experience. 

Ours is a deep tradition of research excellence, including areas such as children’s and women's health, healthy aging, health equity and health systems, and more recently, COVID-19, migration and mental health. On the horizon are growing opportunities for study around the scholarship of teaching and learning, and Indigenous health. Research is the bedrock upon which our global reputation has been built and continues to grow.

Our students, instructors and researchers could not continue to grow and flourish without the amazing support of our alumni community. In all that we do, I feel the strength and 100-year history of that community bolstering our work, with relationships that cross historical, disciplinary and geographic boundaries in the pursuit of better care for all we serve. 

As we celebrate this week together, I am filled with gratitude—for your hard work, your commitment throughout the past two years of challenges, your hopes for the future and your dedication to our communities. This week, I honour all of you and I thank you for being part of our Faculty of Nursing family.

Sincerely, 

Diane Kunyk, PhD, RN
Acting Dean, Faculty of Nursing