Dorothy Wylie
The Nursing Leadership Institute is named after Dorothy M. Wylie. Dorothy is a long-standing leader in the Nursing community in Canada and well known by nurses for her activities as a teacher, a mentor, a coach, a volunteer, a risk-taker and a friend.
Born in 1929 in Toronto, Dorothy enrolled in St Michael’s Hospital School of Nursing and graduated in 1950. In the early 1960’s, Dorothy moved to New York and earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from New York University. This degree was relatively new in North America at this time. Only a very small percentage of nurses studied at this level.
In 1969 she earned a Master of Arts from Columbia University while working at Cornell Medical Centre as the Head Nurse in the Recovery Room. Again she was ahead of her time. Very few nurses achieved masters’ level study in the late 60’s.
In the 1970s armed with a very good education, Dorothy returned to Canada and her home in Toronto. While supporting her elderly parents as a single child, she took on administrative leadership positions in Nursing first at Scarborough Centenary Hospital, then Sunnybrook Medical Centre, and the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario.
In the 1980’s Dorothy was named the Director of Nursing at the 1000 bed Toronto General Hospital. This was the biggest hospital in the country at the time and the Director of Nursing held a very challenging position.
Always a life-long learner, in the early 1980’s Dorothy commuted on weekends from her job at Toronto General Hospital to Washington DC where she studied for a Master of Science in Human Resource Development at American University. She was known by her classmates as a leader, a visionary, and a wise woman who walked her talk and lived her values. She was a person who was direct in her communication and said what was on her mind, a trait many colleagues continue to value from Dorothy.
In 1987, Dorothy retired as Vice President of Nursing at Toronto General Hospital. The following was written in Generally Speaking, the hospital newsletter about her “an outspoken advocate of the nursing profession, Dorothy has earned the respect of her peers at Toronto General and throughout the country. She has played a vital role in the promotion of excellence in nursing practice and has been the mentor to many nurses”.
In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, along with volunteer Board activities and consulting work in Nursing, Dorothy served as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto and an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Nursing.
Dorothy is a former President of the College of Nurses of Ontario and was named a Fellow of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1982 in recognition of outstanding work in promoting excellence in nursing practice. The description of Dorothy that was quoted is this: “Dorothy is well known throughout the country for her far-sightedness, her commitment to quality patient care, and her willingness to take risks to bring about needed change”.
Dorothy was always at the cutting edge. As a visionary she could see what needed to be done to create a good future and she got to work to make it happen. She is a founding member of both the Provincial Nurse Administrators’ Interest Group in Ontario and the Canadian Journal of Nursing Administration which became the Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership. For at least a decade Dorothy was the editor of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Administration/ Leadership, a largely volunteer position she held into her 70s.
More recently, Dorothy has given her time, her talents and commitment to benefit charitable organizations such as The Registered Nurses Foundation of Ontario, the Ethics Committee of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and the History of Nursing Foundation. She is a proud supporter of the University of Toronto Faculty of Nursing, and a keen theatre patron. She cruises from time to time with friends and lends her name and her advice to the Dorothy M. Wylie Nursing Leadership Institute.
