Marion Clauson (BSN ’71 and MSN ’92) is a Senior Instructor in the School of Nursing. She started graduate school in 1992 at a busy time in her life, when she still had young children at home and was working part time. She met wonderful colleagues while going to school. She remembers a statistics course as being a particular challenge but she survived it!
Marion had already been teaching nursing at Langara College and the VGH School of Nursing for awhile before deciding to go to graduate school. She loved teaching so didn’t know if she wanted a master’s degree in Education or Nursing but decided on nursing eventually and has never regretted that decision.
While completing her MSN she held a position at BC Women’s Hospital as Manager of Nursing and Family Education. This was a new type of nursing leadership position at the time. She held this position for one and one halfyears, but found that she missed teaching so applied at the VGH/UBC School of Nursing. In 1996 she was hired as a clinical instructor. She is now a tenured Senior Instructor.
What Marion likes best about her work is that she never knows what’s going to happen next. As a teacher she is always dealing with different learners and likes being able to work in both graduate and undergraduate programs. She appreciates the variety and uniqueness of individual students and admires her colleagues, who she says are “great” to work with.
Teaching is always changing and growing. It’s a complex evolving process that Marion enjoys immensely. One of her initiatives in the School, along with that of three colleagues, is “Teaching Commons”. This is an opportunity and space for nurses to talk about teaching and learning and teaching scholarship in a flexible and evolving way. At the time of writing, Marion was going with her colleagues to the WRCASN (Western Region Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing) to present a paper on Teaching Commons focusing on how educators can keep themselves motivated and stimulated, and how they can support others to do the same, through dialogue about scholarly teaching.
Marion is the current holder of the Elizabeth Kenny McCann Scholar Award. As such, she will take leadership in various initiatives to enhance teaching and educational scholarship during a time of curricular and pedagogical transition within the School. “I feel very honoured to accept this role” says Marion, “I love teaching and look forward to using the time the award enables me to provide a level of support to the teaching of my colleagues and the School that I could not otherwise achieve.”
Building on her clear passion for nursing education, Marion sees herself not as the leader of teaching innovation but as having the privilege of being able to facilitate processes through which the collaborative energies of the talented faculty with the School will create advances in educational innovation beyond what would be possible without the additional support. She sees the Scholar Award as an excellent resource to align the opportunity of a new curriculum, scheduled for implementation in the fall of 2009, with a range of pedagogical advances.
Marion lives in North Vancouver with her husband of over 30 years and has two grown children and a dog. She works at maintaining balance in her life by skiing, walking, reading, and practicing pilates and yoga. And she has recently taken up quilting.