Verna Huffman Splane Lecture
Nursing Leadership in the Age of Climate Action: Health Impacts of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases
Featuring Professor Ruth Schofield
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
5:00 pm – 6:15 pm
Hosted via Zoom
Zoom details will be sent to registrants
Nurses play an important role in addressing and responding to the health impacts of climate-driven vector-borne infectious diseases (VBD’s) at the individual and population level. From Lyme disease to malaria, the risks from VBD’s are increasing as environmental temperatures continue to rise.
This year’s Verna Huffman Splane Lecture features Professor Ruth Schofield, one of the co-creators of the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) Climate-Driven Vector-Borne Diseases Guidelines and E-Resource. Professor Schofield will share with us how this online resource provides unique knowledge to the next generation of healthcare professionals and illustrates the leadership role of nurses in addressing the impacts of climate change.
The Verna Huffman Splane Lecture is made possible through the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing’s Verna Huffman Splane Fund, an endowed award named after Verna Splane, a public health nurse who lived to be 100 years old, and whose legacy sought to encourage continued support for public health nursing. The award was created through a generous gift by Dr. Richard Splane and the Splane Family.
Professor Ruth Schofield is an Assistant Clinical Professor at McMaster University. She is an experienced educator in community health nursing curriculum development, implementation and evaluation having taught at both McMaster University and Western University. Her research activities focus on community health nursing, nursing education, and mental health and housing with several peer-review publications and textbook chapters. Ruth has over 23 years of public health nursing practice experience in front line and management positions, and in various programs. She has been a chair or general member on several provincial and national Boards. Most recently she is a member on the CASN Accreditation Bureau and member of the CASN Community Health Education Interest Group. Ruth has led several national projects in the development of the standards, competencies, and guidelines for community health nursing education and practice.