Dot Klein

Parish Nurse- EAST

I attended the Nightingale School of Nursing in Toronto Ontario in September1963 and became part of the RNAO 5 year Pilot Project (1960-65) to teach  nursing students to practice according to nursing principles established by Florence Nightingale in 1860 and perfected over the next 100 years. The program admission required students to have the same credits as university admission criteria. Over 800 students applied. Only 67 students were admitted because that was the only number or rooms available in the Nursing Residence - a newly constructed 8 floor building built behind Mount Sinai Hospital and joined by an underground tunnel. Orthodox Jewish dietary rules were followed in the residence. All food came from Mount Sinai hospital kitchens. The 1st 2 floors in the building were the classrooms and the  administrative offices. all the teaching staff were active RNAO members with nursing and teaching experience. One teacher was a holocaust survivor and 2 others grew up in Canadian Japanese internment camps in the Canadian prairies. We came from all over Ontario - all born in the early to mid 1940's. The Nightingale School of Nursing Project would provide data needed to establish the College of Nurses of Ontario standards of Professional Nursing Care in accordance with The Nurses Act 1961-62 "and the regulations". I graduated in 1965, wrote my RN provincial exams and enrolled at University of Western Ontario in September 1965 , graduated with a Diploma in Public Health Nursing in June 1966 and in June 1967, I graduated with a BScN from UWO. I had a provincial health and welfare bursary and was assigned to the Victorian Order of Nurses who quickly assigned me to rural branches who were struggling to get staff nurses with public health qualification. Health Care was changing. Canada was adopting a public health care system and the Home Care Program was being introduced. VON was on the forefront especially in underserviced areas. I worked in various VON rural branches as well as VON Toronto (as a supervisor in East York) and finally back to my home town (Sudbury) to expand the branch into the regional mining and lumber towns and liaise with First Nations health services in the area. I left VON in 1973 to start my family. I agreed to teach nursing at Laurentian University School of Nursing when the Senate discovered that the Dean was not even a nurse. I taught nursing for over 1 year, had my second child, followed by child 3 and 4.  During those years, I was the Patient Services Chairperson for the Canadian Cancer Society for NE Ontario until I returned to full time employment  teaching the RNA program for the Ministry of Universities and Colleges and then back to full time with VON. I had become involved with community members to set up a Community Palliative Care Program attached to a new Cancer Treatment Centre and Lodge North Eastern Ontario. This program worked with Community Volunteer Church groups and visiting nursing agencies. The program eventually evolved into a local hospice program that is well supported by the community families and fund raising groups. Visiting nursing agencies provide professional nursing in the community palliative care program   

 I took Gerontology programs through Cambrian Community College and then  taught the program for 2 years. I was the president of the Ontario Gerontology Association in the early 1990s. I was the Manager of the Resource Centre for Disabled Adults (serving NE Ontario with assessments and referrals. I worked closely with the Ontario Federation for Cerebral Palsy and co-hosted International Conferences on Aging and Disabilities. These programs were 100% funded by Community and Social Services. I was the Executive Director of The Lung Association Sudbury-Nipissing Region in the mid - late 1990s. I enrolled into the 2 year  Voluntary Sector Management Program offered by the Faculty of Administrative Studies at York University. There I studied Board Governance which had become a major component of my work. In 1998, I was the Manager of the Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association - funded by the Federal Ministry of  Immigration and Settlement. My aging parents and aging extended family required more attention. I transitioned back into health care in 2000 and into the LTC sector where I worked as a nursing supervisor and also in charge of Alzheimer/Dementia units. I designed and taught PSW programs for the Sudbury Catholic School Board funded by Municipal Social Services as well as took short term contracts with college health science programs, I have been the volunteer co chair of the Sudbury branch of the Ontario Health Coalition and actively involved in their provincial and northern Ontario advocacy work. I graduated from the Foundations Parish Nurse Program at St Peter's Seminary in August 2019 and have my own Private Faith Community Nursing Practice and am involved with 5 different Faith Communities as a health care resource person involved in spiritual supportive care