Description:

The supervision of graduate students is both an art and a science. This course is designed to provide an overview of the responsibilities and best practices of an effective supervisor while promoting self-reflection. The course addresses Master‘s (course based and thesis) and Doctoral supervision.  Emphasis is placed on how to support students while they progress through the various milestones of their programs of study. Particular attention is given on how to assist students experiencing challenges.  Questions related to institutional regulations and policies are also considered.  The course provides participants with multiple strategies, and alternatives for success and culminates in students creating a draft statement of supervisory practices.

Delivery: Online (Zoom & Moodle)
Dates:  (Wednesdays, 4-6 pm Eastern time)

• January 13, 2027
• January 27, 2027
• February 3, 2027

Learning Outcomes: 

 By the end of this course, participants will have developed the following competencies:

1.  Identify best practices in graduate supervision
2.  Relate institutional policies and guidelines to their supervision practices.
3. Take program milestones into account and recognize how they provide a context that colors the roles and resultant approaches of a supervisor at different point in time.
4. Outline how they will foster an effective supervisor-student relationship that takes into account Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility principles.
5. Translate the proposed strategies and alternatives for success in graduate supervision into their own work, through the drafting of an initial graduate supervisory statementoutlining one’s proposed approach. The statement must infuse four best practices.

Cost:

• $200 Student from a CASN member school
• $255Participant from a CASN member school
• $300 Regular participant

Language: This course is available in English and French.

Instructors: 

Pauline Paul, PhD, RN
Professor at the Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, where she recently completed her 5-year term as Associate Dean Graduate Programs in the Faculty of Nursing She has extensive experience in teaching and supervising graduate students. She has supervised or been a committee member for 20 PhD students, and in addition has served as Chair or examiner in 42 instances. She has had various involvement in the supervision of 35 MN students (both thesis and course-based) and has taught 5 graduate courses.

Cheryl van Daalen-Smith, PhD, RN, CCNE
Cheryl van Daalen-Smith is a faculty member with the school of nursing at York University. She currently serves as the Associate Dean, Academic for the Faculty of Graduate Studies where she oversees and guides best practices in graduate supervision. She’s co-developed an innovative toolkit for supervision that is used across Canada. She recently released her first novel, The Chronicles of Paisley Corners, which focuses on a fictitious Canadian public health nurses comings and goings in rural Ontario.

Contact: If you have any questions or would like more information about the course, please contact Keith Beriault, CNEI Officer, at 613-235-3150 (ext. 163 or kberiault@casn.ca.

Cancellations

• Registrations that are cancelled up to one week before the start of the course will be refunded minus a $50 administrative fee.
• Registrations that are cancelled with less than one week’s notice will not be refunded, though the participant will have the option to defer the cost of the course to apply to another CNEI/CASN course.
• There will be no refunds issued once the course begins.
• CASN reserves the right to cancel this course if it does not meet minimal group requirements.
• Please see our complete academic policies online at https://www.casn.ca/eas/cnei/introduction#Policies.