Awards and Scholarships

The John Alex Crawford Scholarship

A national scholarship has been established by the friends and colleagues of John Alex Crawford. The scholarship is administered by the Registered Psychiatric Nurses Foundation Inc.

John Crawford graduated from a Saskatchewan Psychiatric Nursing Education Diploma Program in 1967 and from then on he dedicated his professional life to the profession of psychiatric nursing. In 1977 he Chaired an inter-provincial group of Registered Psychiatric Nurses who developed the first ever National Standards for Psychiatric Nursing Practice, the first for any regulated nursing profession in Canada. These Standards, with revisions, have been used by the profession of psychiatric nursing in Canada from 1979 to 2009.

John began his career as a psychiatric nursing educator in Saskatchewan in 1972. He moved to British Columbia in 1974 to teach in the psychiatric nursing education program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. He was a psychiatric nursing educator , practitioner, administrator and researcher until his transition to the spirit world in 2004.

John had a strong belief in the profession of Psychiatric Nursing and in its ongoing development and he worked tirelessly towards that end. At the time of his passing, he had achieved candidacy as a doctoral student [PhD (Candidate)] in the Faculty of Education, at the University of British Columbia. He would be very pleased to know that in 2010, the profession has three baccalaureate degree programs in Psychiatric Nursing and that a Master's Program in Psychiatric Nursing is expected to begin in January 2011.

John's dream is becoming a reality and this scholarship is being established to honour his memory by raising funds to support studies that will contribute to the profession of Psychiatric Nursing. The Scholarship will support Registered Psychiatric Nurses in Canada who wish to pursue Master's or Doctoral Studies that are directly related to psychiatric nursing in the areas of clinical practice, education, administration or research.

Other Scholarships

For information about applications, please contact the Registered Psychiatric Nurses Foundation Inc.