The Faculty of Nursing, in collaboration with Continuing Education and in association with the Ontario Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner consortium, is launching a certification program that will enable Registered Nurses (RNs) in Ontario to prescribe medication for specific treatment and health care such as contraception, immunization, smoking cessation, and topical wound care.

Until now, only specialized health-care professionals such as physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, and veterinarians had prescribing authority in the province. With the approval of the Ontario University Consortium RN Prescribing Education Program by the College of Nurses of Ontario, it is no longer the case.

Faculty of Nursing professors Sherry Morrell and Gina Pittman highlighted the program’s impact on the health-care system, and how it significantly changes the landscape of access to care and treatment with prescribed medication.

“For communities, the benefit is faster and easier access to specific treatments in Ontario,” says Dr. Morrell. “For instance, you no longer have to wait for a doctor’s appointment to obtain prescriptions for things such as birth control, medications to help you quit smoking, and travel medications to treat and prevent malaria and traveller’s diarrhea.”

Drs. Morrell and Pittman are also Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioners (PHCNPs) – medical professionals who have advanced education and training at the graduate level, allowing them to be autonomous primary care providers for Ontarians, including diagnosing and treating medical conditions, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests, prescribing medications, referring to specialists, and generally acting as the individual’s first point of contact with the health care system.

“When the College of Nurses of Ontario requested University of Windsor to map a course program for this type of certification, the fit was perfect for Sherry and Gina since the essential RN-prescribing process was a natural extension of their established clinical expertise in the field, and their proven ability to formulate a program’s core competencies, testing methodology, and outcomes,” says Faculty of Nursing dean Debbie Sheppard-LeMoine.

“They also have extensive experience leading the development of Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner students within the University of Windsor PHCNP program and are active as researchers.”

However, proposing a new and comprehensive certification course proved to be quite challenging.

“It was difficult to create a new and robust course in such a short amount of time while addressing issues related to effectively delivering this education across Ontario asynchronously,” says Pittman.

Pittman emphasizes that collaboration with faculty in the Ontario Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner Consortium and members of the Council of Ontario Universities was vital in the organization and development of the learning modules. The UWindsor Continuing Education department also played a crucial role by quickly bringing the course offering to fruition.

“We’re honoured to be contributing as the operational unit for this vital program,” says Jennie Atkins, executive director of Continuing Education. “The Faculty of Nursing is a great partner and their wealth of expertise in the field is invaluable to the learning experience this program provides.”

Atkins adds that there has been a substantial level of interest in the program, which demonstrates the evident demand for certifications among Ontario’s Registered Nurses seeking proficiency and training to augment their skills in providing enhanced patient care. It also reflects the University’s agility in adapting to evolving health care and nursing requirements and requests.

“The Council of Ontario Universities is proud to support the University of Windsor in developing this innovative RN prescribing program,” says Steve Orsini, the council’s president and CEO. “Drawing on the expertise of university Nurse Practitioners from the nine-university consortium was instrumental in developing this safe and effective program that promotes the expansion of RN scope of practice and improves access to care for Ontarians.”

Current sections and waitlists for the certification program are full. Plans to add more sections are underway, with dates to be confirmed. Interested applicants can submit inquiries via Continuing Education's registration page and select “Request Information” on a section. Replies will be provided upon confirmation of additional sections.

For more information, visit the program page on the Continuing Education website or contact continue@uwindsor.ca.

For more information about UWindsor Nursing, visit uwindsor.ca/nursing.

A power outage has temporarily closed the CAW Student Centre.

The student hub is expected to remain closed during the day on Friday, Jan. 19, or until the issue is resolved with no access to the building or its services at the time of this publishing. This includes the University pharmacy, walk-in clinic, Multi-Faith Room, Peer Support Centre, Student Counselling Centre, Marketplace food court, Campus Food Pantry, Aboriginal Education Centre, and Campus Bookstore, among others.

Food Service outlets elsewhere on campus remain open; find details here.

There are a few walk-in clinics near the University campus and downtown Windsor. UMC Urgent Care at 1100 University Ave. W., Core Medical Centre at 1329 Windsor Ave., Windsor Medical Clinic at 1608 Tecumseh Rd. W., and Windsor Urgent Care Clinic at 2055 Huron Church Rd. A short vehicle or bus ride may be required to access some of these clinics. 

Anyone with an appointment at the student counselling or peer support centres booked for Thursday, Jan. 18, should call or email to inquire about the status of their appointments.

Other mental health support options are still available to the campus community:

• Telus Health One is available online or at 1-844-880-9124, 1-844-880-9137, TTY 1-877-338-0275 for the employee and family assistance program.
• Good2Talk offers mental health support for Ontario post-secondary students, with translations in more than 100 languages, professional counsellors can be reached at 1-866-925-5454 or text GOOD2TALKON to 686868 for a trained volunteer.
• To reach a professional crisis worker, call the community crisis line at 519-973-4435.
• A free suicide crisis helpline is available to anyone in Canada who may be thinking about suicide or concerned about someone else, call or text 9-8-8.
• Wellness Together Canada offers free mental health and substance use counselling and support for anyone living in Canada. Professional counsellors can be reached at 1-866-585-0445 or text WELLNESS to 686868 for a trained volunteer.
• Emergency assistance: If you are concerned about your own or another person’s safety, seek emergency assistance. For immediate on-campus assistance call Campus Special Constable Services at 519-253-3000 ext. 4444 for emergency issues and ext. 1234 for non-emergency issues.

Follow @uwindsor on X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram for the latest information.

With a long-term goal of offering a novel approach to treating Alzheimer’s disease, professor Vijendra Sharma is researching biological pathways that could reverse long-term memory impairment.

Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease characterized by a gradual loss of memory and cognition, leading to amnesia.

“First, we want to identify the cell types in the brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease,” says Dr. Sharma.

“Then we’ll study how stress alters protein synthesis pathways in those cell types to create drugs that target the affected cells and correct the dysregulated protein synthesis, which is critical for memories.”

An assistant professor in biomedical sciences who started his lab at the University of Windsor in January 2023, Sharma will focus on the integrated stress response pathway, which is activated in Alzheimer’s disease. Prolonged cellular stress along this pathway in the brains of patients impairs the formation of long-term memory.

“We don’t know which cell types in the brain are more sensitive or affected by cellular stress, so by looking at post-mortem brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients, we’ll identify the cells that are more sensitive to cellular stress and then use gene therapy to make them survive.”

In Alzheimer’s disease, the accumulation of neurotoxic proteins triggers the stress response to protect and promote cell survival. However, prolonged cellular stress and activation leads to cell death and subsequent brain atrophy.

To develop targeted medication or gene therapy, his team will engineer a viral vector that will control the activity of the integrated stress response pathway in specific cell types.

“When we take medicine, we have various side effects, with the main reason being that a drug will affect all cells, including healthy as well as diseased cells — it cannot differentiate,” Sharma says. “But by using gene therapy, we have the opportunity to target the affected cells in the Alzheimer’s brain.

“Like when you have a headache, we are taking medicine which goes through the entire system. Now we could have the opportunity to deliver medication to specific cell types.”

When we age, says Sharma, external and internal factors work together to inflame the brain, exert cellular stress, and affect memory strength. When you couple that with a neurological disorder, chronic cellular stress causes cell death, leading to severe memory loss.

Sharma is collaborating with experts in the field, including UWindsor colleagues from chemistry and biomedical sciences. His research project, titled Identification of cell-type-specific dysregulated mRNA translation in Alzheimer’s disease, got a boost with a one-year $20,000 WE-Spark Igniting Discovery grant.

“It is very important, especially for an early-career researcher like me, to be given financial support at this stage,” Sharma says.

“The grant is important because it will help me to develop projects and collect preliminary data so I can apply for more funding in the future.”

The WE-Spark Igniting Discovery grants provide seed funding to stimulate the development of early-stage, novel, and innovative health research and education projects in Windsor-Essex.

Athletes watch they eat for optimal performance, says Victoria Ballo, and academic all-stars should do the same.

A student of behaviour, cognition, and neuroscience, she is part of a team that developed Outstanding Nutrition: Nutrition for overachievers!, a cookbook aimed at fuelling academic achievement.

“A good diet fuels success, well-being, and sustainable practices,” Ballo says. She and other members of the Outstanding Scholars Student Council — Katerina Amicone, Victorious Sambao, and Nicole Vanier — joined dietitians Leeauna Duchesne and Shelley Amato to develop the book.

Besides recipes, it boasts tips on planning meals, preparing meals, and developing healthy eating habits, with information on packing a lunch, understanding food labels, and shopping on a limited budget.

Tim Brunet, co-ordinator of the Outstanding Scholars program, is happy to see the group publish the cookbook online.

“We want students at the University of Windsor to thrive,” Dr. Brunet says. “We hope that proper nutrition will provide a healthy basis for students who are doing amazing things in the classroom and in research.”

Read Outstanding Nutrition here.