Professional Practice Conference 2026

BCNU's professional practice conference will take place March 11-12, 2026 at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, located on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

Ratios Save Lives: From Policy to Practice will bring together nurses, researchers, and health-system leaders to build on the ground-breaking progress achieved in implementing ratios across the province.

This two-day, salary-replaced event will provide a platform for nurses to share their expertise and guide practical, effective approaches for the next phases of implementation across community, long-term care, mental health, public health, and urgent care settings.

Applications are now closed.

mNPR from Safety Perspective

Alison Leary, MBE, FRCN, is a professor of healthcare and workforce modeling at London South Bank University and a senior consultant to the World Health Organization on human resources for health. She has worked across several industries and uses nonlinear mathematics and data science to improve workforce planning and patient safety. Her modeling for inflammatory bowel disease nursing informed a European staffing standard. She was appointed an MBE in 2019 and is a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing and the Queen’s Nursing Institute.

Bringing it Home: New Research on Ratios in BC

Karen B. Lasater, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, is the Jessie M. Scott Term Chair in Nursing and Health Policy, an associate professor of nursing, and associate director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She has published widely in leading international and interdisciplinary journals, including JAMA Health Forum and the International Journal of Nursing Studies, focusing on nurse well-being, patient safety and outcomes, work environments, and the value of nursing care.

Update on BC Implementation

Adriane Gear leads the BC Nurses’ Union (BCNU), representing 55,000 nurses working across acute care, long-term care, and community health settings. A registered nurse and passionate advocate for safe, high-quality patient care and improved working conditions, Adriane has been a driving force in health policy since 2015.

Under her leadership, BCNU has been working with BC’s health ministry to lead the planning and implementation of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios across the province’s acute-care sector and address the severe nurse staffing shortage in BC’s health-care system.

Adriane has spoken to audiences across the country and internationally about her union’s efforts to secure minimum nurse-to-patient ratios and see BC as the first jurisdiction in Canada to adopt this critical policy solution – one she hopes to see expanded to other provinces and other parts of the world.

Kerry Morrison is a registered nurse in BC with over 25 years of experience in health care. She has a clinical background in adult medical and surgical inpatient care and has held senior leadership roles in clinical operations, quality improvement, and health service planning. A strong advocate for safe practice environments and high-quality patient care, Kerry brings system-level expertise to workforce strategy and policy development.

As Provincial Chief Nursing Officer, she is instrumental in the planning of BC’s minimum nurse to patient ratios (mNPR). Kerry's dedication stems from a belief that nurses are foundational to a sustainable health care system and without safe work environments and manageable patient assignments everyone suffers.