Dr. Rita Schreiber

Dr. Rita Schreiber joined the University of Victoria School of Nursing in 1996. She had been a Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Queen Street Mental Health Centre in Toronto, and had served a year as Senior Consultant with the Nurse Practitioner Project of the Ontario Ministry of Health. She holds a Doctor of Nursing Science from the State University of New York, an MS in Nursing from the University of Minnesota, a BA in Anthropology, and an RN from the Toronto General Hospital School of Nursing. Her thesis and dissertation were focused on depression.  

Her work experiences were related to mental health. She was a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Psychiatry in Scarborough’s Centenary Hospital and later at the Queen Street Mental Health Centre in Toronto.  

Dr. Schreiber was a prolific writer, with over 50 refereed publications beginning in 1982, both as solo author and with shared authorship. She also published chapters in books, and with Dr. Phyllis Stern, published a book titled Using Grounded Theory in Nursing. She was a frequent conference speaker, presenting across Canada and abroad (Denmark, Botswana, and Thailand).  

Policy-making was a strong interest of Dr. Schreiber’s. As early as 1987 she spoke and wrote about nurses’ response to changes in mental health legislation in Ontario, and on legislation that would amend the Regulated Health Professions in Ontario in 1993. From 1990 to 1996, Dr. Schreiber was instrumental in Ontario nurses’ response to enactment of pay equity legislation, and published several papers on job evaluation and the concept of gender neutrality. Through the years she gave several other policy-focused presentations.  

Beginning in 2001, she, along with like-minded nursing colleagues, published papers on advanced nursing practice and papers with a focus on the nurse practitioner role in BC. Between 2001 and 2004 she responded to invitations to present papers on advanced nursing practice and spoke about opportunities and challenges in advanced practice.  

Over the years of her scholarship with a team, she received a steady number of research grants, the majority of them focusing on the advanced nursing practice and growing into a focus on the nurse practitioner role. Dr. Schreiber and Dr. Marjorie MacDonald led the team that was responsible for the introduction of nurse practitioners in BC in 2005.  

Alongside this policy focus, Dr. Schreiber co-led the creation of an ongoing research seminar on grounded theory methodology in the School of Nursing. Known as the Grounded Theory Club, this web-based seminar has attracted participants from several countries. Many of her major grants were studies based upon the use of grounded theory, and her papers and presentations reflect that fact as well. Using grounded theory was also the focus of several all-day or half-day workshops. Her graduate student supervision was extensive, as was her work on faculty and school committees.