Hazel J. Magussen

Hazel Joan Schattschneider Magnussen graduated from the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta in 1964. After two years as staff nurse in an Alaska Native Hospital, she returned to Canada and became the first graduate of the Outpost Nursing Program at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1969. Hazel completed her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing at the University of Alberta in 1972. Hazel worked in management and coordinator positions in public health nursing, programs for the elderly and persons with neuromuscular disorders before undertaking studies in health care ethics. After completing a Master’s degree in Theological Studies from St. Stephen’s Theological College in 1988, Hazel continued to write about health care ethics while working in nursing education and mental health nursing. Her nursing work and studies took her to five provinces and two territories of Canada and one American state.

Since writing the book, A Doctor’s Calling: A matter of conscience, Hazel has advocated for change in the medical profession’s management of disruptive behaviour and criminal justice reform on behalf of crime victims.  In her more recent books,  Go North Young woman, Go North and The Moral Work of Nursing: Asking and living with the questions, Hazel focuses on developments in health care, changes in the nursing profession and the well-being of nurses.   Since her husband’s death in January 2015, Hazel has moved from Vancouver Island to  Edmonton, Alberta.