Margaret Campbell (BASc(N) ’48)

Margaret was the most senior faculty member throughout the Muriel Uprichard years. She began her sabbatical and study leave at the beginning of the 1967-1968 year, just as Evelyn Mallory retired. In 1970, she became the first UBC graduate on the faculty to obtain a doctorate, and began the trend for existing faculty to take doctoral studies. On her return to the School, during the Beth McCann era, she joined those teaching in the master’s program but at first continued to teach in the undergraduate program as well. During the Uprichard years she became one of two assistant directors and chaired the curriculum committee. From then until her retirement in 1988, she taught almost exclusively in the master’s program. She had another study leave in 1981-1982, during which she continued to perfect her work on the UBC Model. She completed the official document, The UBC Model for Nursing: Directions for Practice, commonly referred to as “the blue book” in 1987.

The UBC Model for Nursing Faculty members at the UBC School of Nursing had been working for several years on a “Model for Nursing” when Muriel Uprichard arrived. The development of theoretical models for nursing practice and nursing education was a major advance in nursing in the 1950s. Models are based on scientific nursing theories, on nursing practice, or on a combination, and state beliefs and goals. They vary considerably. For example, one of the earliest, although it was not called a model, was developed by Virginia Henderson in 1952; it viewed humans as having 14 fundamental needs, which formed the basis for all nursing practice. Another model, developed in the 1970’s by Calista Roy, used four modes of adaptation on which nursing practice was based. Dorothy Johnson used eight behavioural systems as the basis for her model. Yet another model, by Dorothea Orem, took six universal, self-care requisites as its base and it was adopted in the late 1980s by the nurses in the Vancouver Health Department.

Nursing faculty at UBC began work in the late 1960s on a theoretical framework for curriculum development and on investigation of a model that could guide nurses in their practice, whether in institutions, communities, or homes. However, when Muriel Uprichard arrived and announced that the new curriculum would be based on a nursing model, this work suddenly became more urgent. A committee was struck, chaired by Margaret Campbell, who had recently returned to UBC from doctoral studies. The committee developed a model based on a behavioural systems model, similar to that developed by Dorothy Johnson. The UBC Model focused on “well” individuals who may face crises during their life cycles and may require nursing interventions. These crises may be unpredictable events, such as illnesses, or maturational events. The nurse, as nurturer, assists individuals to develop suitable coping behaviours in pursuit of the optimal goal of “health”.

The model, which almost immediately became known as the UBC Model for Nursing, required intensive work by a small, dedicated committee of faculty during 1972 and 1973. Nursing assessment tools and other databases had to be developed as well. For example, the “loss framework”, which focuses on the “loss of wellness”, became the pivotal point for the second year, during which students became involved with ill individuals who required hospital-based nursing care. In the third year students focused both on the individual and on the family. In the fourth year students continued their focus on individual and family, but expanded their practice to include the complexities of communities. So that the Model would be ready for the start of the new program in 1973, the five-member “Model Committee” (Margaret Campbell, Helen Shore, Janet Gormick, Rose Murakami, and Mary Cruise) worked evenings, weekends, and statutory holidays. In 1976, Nursing Papers (later called the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research) devoted an entire issue to articles written by several UBC faculty members about the UBC Model and its implementation. As well as depicting the model, the articles also described some of the independent study modules that were developed in these years, the tools for clinical evaluation, and an on-going research project designed to assess student satisfaction with the new program. These innovative projects were considerably in advance of their time.

The UBC Model has continued to be refined, but has changed only slightly from its original innovative base. Its theoretical underpinnings have been tested and it has been adopted successfully in a variety of practice settings throughout the province. The first agency to use the UBC Model was the Psychiatric Unit of the UBC Health Sciences Centre Hospital under nursing director Helen Gemeroy. When the new 300-bed Extended Care Unit (the Purdy Pavilion) of the Health Sciences Centre Hospital opened in 1977, Mary Cruise, who had been a member of the Model Committee, became the nursing director and selected the UBC Model as the basis for practice. The G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre adopted the UBC Model as the basis for its care in the mid-1980s. Students who have learned how to use The Model find it a valuable tool throughout their careers as a guide for collection and analysis of information.

Although Margaret Campbell seemed a shy, retiring personality, she was always active in provincial and national nurses’ associations. She served on many education committees and was a long-time member of the CNA Testing Service committees, which prepared registration examinations throughout the 1970s. An extremely conscientious teacher and attentive to detail, she became a much admired and respected advisor for many master’s students. Anyone who took her courses became expert at formulating objectives. From 1978 to 1986, when Marilyn Williamson was director, she was coordinatorof the MSN program and the graduate advisor. In 1987, she received the RNABC’s Award of excellence in Nursing Education. She was also honoured by the UBC Alumni Nursing Division on her retirement from UBC in 1988. In 1990, she, along with Alice Baumgart, received one of the 75 UBC Alumni Association 75th Anniversary Award Certificates of Merit “for distinction to the University throughout her professional career and professional dedication and exceptional contribution to the community”.

Six months following her retirement, she was diagnosed with lung cancer and, despite an aggressive treatment regime, died of the disease in January 1992.

(Excerpts from Legacy: History of Nursing Education at the University of British Columbia 1919-1994, 1994, Glennis Zilm and Ethel Warbinek, Chapter 6).
Other material provided by the BC History of Nursing Society archives
http://bcnursinghistory.ca/archives/biographical-files