the Legend
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UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE
Penner’s dedication recognized with honour BY SUZANNE BOWNESS
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o say Jennifer Penner wears many hats would be an understatement. She’s the team lead and nurse clinician at Lethbridge’s Heart Function Clinic/Heart Failure Network, a regular guest lecturer in University of Lethbridge nursing classes and an advocate for more connected and patient-centric health care. Yet, at heart, her professional scope is unified by a very personal philosophy. “The thing that has inspired me is the connection with patients and families, and the ability to deliver excellent care in such a way that it will empower people to live better lives,” says Penner.
“I love having an influence on promoting clinical excellence and building the future of nursing.”
JENNIFER PENNER
Clearly Penner has passed that inspiration along to others. This year, her longstanding contributions are being recognized with the 2012 Friends of Health Sciences Award, an annual honour from
the Faculty of Health Sciences that recognizes an individual or agency that has made a significant contribution to health education and research at the University of Lethbridge. Originally from Bow Island, Alta., Penner completed her initial nursing education at Medicine Hat College and her bachelor of science in nursing degree at the University of Alberta. She has spent most of her 25-year career in southern Alberta. Today, Penner supervises five nurses at the Heart Failure Clinic, as well as leads the relatively new and forward-thinking Heart Failure Network, which she helped to create in 2008. By encouraging greater collaboration between diverse roles such as case managers, acute care workers and even family doctors, the network integrates health services among these practitioners and increases their awareness of their roles relative to their colleagues, and even more significantly, to the patient. “When we understand what everyone’s role is, the patient in the middle gets better benefits and outcomes,” says Penner. With an estimated 500,000 heart failure patients in Canada and more than 80,000 in Alberta alone, the significance of this work becomes even more apparent. At 10,000 admissions per year, heart failure is one of the most common diagnoses for medical admission to hospital, says Penner. “It’s a huge chronic disease.
Penner relishes the opportunity to work collaboratively with the u of L’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
That’s why we need an approach that’s far reaching to promote better care, better outcomes and wise utilization of health-care resources.” She adds that greater integration tends to increase patient stability, which cuts costs by reducing the burden on busy emergency rooms and contributes to fewer admissions to acute care facilities. On top of her leadership in the Heart Failure Network, Penner also shares her expertise with the next generation of nurses, a commitment that began in 2003. Today, she lectures for several faculty members in both nursing and
research courses, grounding her talks about heart failure in actual case studies that the young nursesin-training are likely to encounter early in their careers. “Lecturing is near and dear to my heart,” says Penner. “I love having an influence on promoting clinical excellence and building the future of nursing.” She also helps students gain experience by connecting them with practical work experiences in clinics, and helping with other real-world skills such as cardiac assessment. While Penner is clearly motivated by factors beyond
FIAT LUX ADDRESS STIMULATES LIBERAL EDUCATION DIALOGUE Dr. Andy Hakin has posed the question, and now we look forward to the discussions that will ensue. The second annual Fiat Lux Address was the purview of Hakin this time around, after President Mike Mahon gave the inaugural address in 2011. And from the outset of Hakin’s presentation, the provost and vice-president (academic) made one thing abundantly clear – he was going to initiate a dialogue about liberal education and not conclude one. “My intention today is to ask questions,” said Hakin. “There’s no solution here – if you’re looking for a solution you’re at the wrong talk.” Weaving a narrative that first spoke to the need to differentiate the University within the province’s post-secondary landscape, Hakin paid homage to some of the institution’s founders such as Drs. Owen
Holmes and Luke Stebbins. He referred to conversations he’d had with former Provost Dr. Seamus O’Shea and Dr. Chris Nichol as he shaped is opinions on liberal education at the U of L. “The need for differentiation within Alberta’s post-secondary system has never been greater, for our students and for us,” he said. “There are many things we could do but what are the right ones? It’s a time for focus and a time to review the options that are in front of us.” One of those options is to take a real look at the liberal education ideal through the University’s curriculum and to not be afraid to ask the hard questions. “Is the GLER (general liberal education requirements) list a liberal education?” he asked. “I’ve been here 23 years and it doesn’t seem to have evolved much from those lists.
For some of our students, it becomes ticking off boxes to complete a degree – but is that a liberal education? I don’t think so, and I think we have to be a little more purposeful.” Time and again, Hakin would go back to a common refrain, saying, “It’s time to get into it.” He acknowledged there was a fear to open up the liberal education discussion, mainly because the University community is not entirely sure just what liberal education is today. “It’s not going to come, in a comprehensive academic and research institution, at the expense of the strength of our majors. This is not about downgrading the quality of our majors, but if we’re serious about the quality of the whole of the degree that we offer, then we have to try and build an experience not just around the major but the whole beast.”
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Hakin challenged faculty, as the generators of curriculum, to examine their own thoughts on liberal education. “I’m asking for us to reinvest in curriculum,” he said. “We have strong programs and majors but I think we can do better. It’s not that it’s bad, I’m just asking the question, is it purposeful and does it address the needs of today’s students and differentiate us in a manner that it could?” He concluded by putting the conversation into historical context, harkening back to the University’s founding principles, hashed out at the 1967 Waterton Conference. “Liberal education has historically been very important to us,” he said. “We need to ask, does it still have that importance to us as an institution? I know where I stand, I want to know where you stand.” Let the dialogue begin.
awards and accolades, she says she is “deeply honoured” to be recognized by the University of Lethbridge, noting that her work in the academic setting has helped her realize her own personal potential. “It is so rewarding to be collaborative, to work with the esteemed professionals at the University and to experience the infectious vitality of new nurses. It motivates me and inspires me to be better.” The Friends of Health Sciences Award reception is Saturday, Oct. 13 at 2 p.m. in the Markin Hall Atrium.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 “The organizing idea for this course is community mapping, which is based on principles of learning about the communities you live in through mapping (in the broadest sense of that word) what they offer,” says Newberry. “The mapping metaphor extends from how a student maps out an essay or the coulee, to mapping research clusters and the resources available to support student success. This course takes a liberal education approach that emphasizes multiple perspectives, and it is designed to highlight some of our most dynamic teachers as a way to introduce students to the Faculties and disciplines at the University of Lethbridge.” Upon the term’s completion, the course will be evaluated to see how it benefited its first class, and subsequently how to move forward to bring this type of learning to a broader segment of first-year students. These endeavours highlight the University’s dedication to providing an enhanced student experience within a framework of liberal education and interdisciplinary inquiry.