grandson of David Joseph Lafond

Hospital services in Regina began in 1896 when the Land Titles Building at the corner of Hamilton Street and 13th Avenue was rented, furnished and equipped as the new six-bed hospital. The Victoria Order of Nurses provided nursing services to the Cottage Hospital, as it was called, under an appointed Board of Directors. In 1899, a new building was erected on Hamilton Street south of 14th Avenue, funded by public subscription and a contribution from the VON. The new 25-bed facility, named Victoria Hospital, was ready for service in 1900 and officially opened in September 1901. A Training School for Nurses was launched in this hospital in 1902, as the VON had ceased to provide nursing services. In 1907 the City of Regina Health and Relief Department assumed control of the hospital which was renamed the Regina General Hospital. A new 100-bed facility was completed in 1911 at the present site on 14th Avenue. The buildings underwent many additions and renovations over the years and by 1950 bed capacity had reached 807. Construction continued during the 1950s and 1960s, and an extensive Regeneration Program was carried out during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1974, Regina General Hospital was taken over by the Province of Saskatchewan, and the consolidation of health services followed. Reorganisation of Saskatchewan health services commenced in 1992, resulting in the establishment of the Regina District Health Board (14 February 1992) and the Regina Health District (May 1993). Regina General Hospital became one of several facilities integrated in the new district health services plan under the management of one administration and one Board. In 2002 the District amalgamated with two others to form the Regina Qu'Appelle Regional Health Authority. As one of two tertiary care institutions, the Regina General Hospital continues to hold a key role in the Region's integrated health care system. The following individuals have served as Superintendent or Executive Director of Regina General Hospital: Charles Barton (1948-1965), Dr. Ernest Appleyard (1953-1958), Dr. A. Pickles (1965-1967), H. M. J. Westcott (1967-1968), E. C. (Edward) Emery (1968-1975), Dr. D. W. Carnduff (1975- 1976), and Royce H. Gill (1976-1993).

Nursing education in Regina commenced in 1902 at the Regina Victoria Hospital. Three students were accepted to the Training School for Nurses that first year, with one receiving her diploma in 1904. The first complete class was graduated in 1906. In 1907, the hospital was taken over by the City of Regina, and was renamed the Regina General Hospital. The nursing school continued under the new management as the Regina General Hospital School of Nursing. On 21 February 1916, the Teaching Council of the School of Nursing was founded. Consisting of the Medical Superintendent, Superintendent of Nurses, and Medical Staff and other staff of the hospital actively engaged in teaching the students, the Teaching Council regulated the instruction and examination of students and made recommendations on the granting of diplomas and awards. The 3-year program combining classroom instruction and practical work on the wards, where the students provided most of the nursing care, was conducted with only minor changes for almost fifty years. Under the regulation of the provincial Department of Health attempts were made to centralize nursing education during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1966 responsibility for nursing education was moved to the Department of Education and provincial technical institutes began to offer nursing as a 2-year program. In 1971, Regina General Hospital began to phase out its own nursing program, and nursing education was transferred to the Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences in Regina. The last class to graduate from the Regina General Hospital School of Nursing did so in July 1972. During the school's history, more than 2,700 nurses were graduated.

The following individuals have served as Superintendent or Director of Nursing: Elizabeth Chalmers (1903-1909), Elsie Clearihue (1910-1912), E.M. Turner (1913-1915), R.E. Wass (Acting 1916), J.R. Reckie (1917-1918), M.J. Fraser, (1919-1921) M.B. Garrow (1922), S.I. McKinnon (1923-1925), E.I. Smith (1926-1927), S. Sanderson (1928), K.M. Ross (1929), V. Pearson (1930-1931), Helen B. Smith (1932-1934), Annie F. Lawrie (1935-1943), B.C. Reierson (Acting, 1944), M.E. Thompson (1945-1959), J. Goodhind, (Associate Director, Nursing Education, 1960-1962), L.M. Scorer (1963-1965), M.E. Magdalin (1966), Eleanor Linnell (Director, Nursing Education, 1964-1967, 1968-1972), and Isobel Colvin (Administrator, Patient Care, 1967-1972).

Barbara Humphrey (nee Sutherland) graduated from the Regina Grey Nuns' Hospital School of Nursing in 1919. She was awarded the gold medal in paediatrics. Humphrey nursed in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, and later did private duty nursing for the Wrigley family on Catalina Island, California. She married R. J. Humphrey of Kinistino, Saskatchewan.

The Nurses' Christian Fellowship was started among Regina General Hospital student nurses by Irene Ficke and M. Johnson, around 1944. Organised to meet the spiritual needs of the nurses-in-training, this nondenominational group was affiliated with the National Association of Christian Nurses and the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. The Nurses' Christian Fellowship held weekly meetings in the Nurses' Residence, consisting of Bible studies led by the students, and presentations by youth speakers and missionary nurses. Social activities included: sporting events, parties, picnics, sewing bees, taffy pulls, and events with other Christian Fellowship groups. Each year, the Nurses' Christian Fellowship held a "Probie" reception for new students, and a spring banquet in honour of the graduating class.

The Plains Health Centre was founded by the South Saskatchewan Hospital Centre Board to provide a base hospital and other health facilities for Southern Saskatchewan. At its inception, the new facility was to be a teaching hospital affiliated with the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held on 9 July 1970, after nearly three years of intensive planning by the SSHC Board and its architects. The corner stone was laid on 8 November 1973 and the Centre was opened in 1974. The new 303-bed facility provided the services of medicine, general surgery, orthopaedics, neurological sciences, urology, plastic surgery, ICU/CCU and self-care; carried out all cardio-vascular surgery; provided a centre for severe multiple trauma; provided resource services to rural hospitals in the south-east region of Saskatchewan; was a teaching centre for medical, nursing, and para-medical personnel; and included research within the health field in its programs. The Centre was the first hospital in Canada built with primarily single room, self-contained accommodations. In 1992 the "Report on More Effective Hospital Care for Regina" (Atkinson report) recommended the closure of the Plains Health Centre and the consolidation of acute care in the Pasqua and Regina General hospitals. The following year, the newly-formed Regina Health District Board took over the administration of the Plains, and initiated a five-year plan ("Toward 2000") to fulfil these recommendations. The Plains Health Centre was closed in 1998. The following individuals have served as Administrator of the Plains Health Centre: Elta Brown (1976-1978), William A. Dartnell (February 1978-September 1981), Don P. Schurman (October 1981-ca. 1984), and Dick Chinn (1984-1993).

The Regina General Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association was organised on 27 April 1921 through the efforts of Mary Jeannette Fraser, then Superintendent of the Training School for Nurses, and with a membership of twenty. The aim of the association was "the promotion of loyalty, co-operation and good fellowship among its members whose interests it sought to serve both in the Training School and in their professional work." The Alumnae Association raised money through annual fund-raising events, such as teas, bake sales, bazaars, and raffles. The proceeds were used for donations to the Hospital, Nurses' Residence, and many charitable organisations. The Association presented the Florence Nightingale Award for Devotion to Duty to a member of the School of Nursing graduating class, and sponsored an annual formal dance for the graduating class held at the Hotel Saskatchewan. It made a scholarship available to active members of the alumnae for post-graduate study in any University School of Nursing. The Alumnae Association published a directory of graduates in 1950, 1960, and 1989. In 1959, the Association adopted a young boy from Korea. The Alumnae Association was formally disbanded on 15 October 1974. However, an annual Fall Dinner and Social was continued in order to maintain unity and fellowship, and anniversaries of graduations continue to be recognised.

Born ca. 1908 of Polish decent, Jan Pawel Szlazak spent his early years in Galacia, a former province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He escaped from Nazi-occupied Poland early in World War II. Szlazak practised plastic surgery at Rooksdown House in Bassingstoke, England, from 1944 to 1950 – under the tutelage of Sir Harold Delf Gillies, the founder of plastic surgery in England, and Sir Archibald McIndoe. Szlazak received the Silver Cross of Merit in 1943 for distinguished service as a medical officer in Poland, England, and France. He was commissioned as an officer in the Polish Air Force in 1946; and in the Royal Air Force in 1948, eventually reaching the rank of squadron leader. Szlazak was the first plastic surgeon in Saskatchewan, performing maxillo-facial and plastic surgery. He worked at the former Medical Arts Centre in Regina from 1950 until his retirement in 1974, and was the Head of Plastic Surgery at Regina General Hospital. Szlazak married Christina Matecz, and the couple had two children, Anita and Ian. Jan Szlazak died in Ottawa on 12 October 1987, in his 79th year.

The Women's Auxiliary of the Regina General Hospital was formed in 1907 "to forward the interests of the hospital in any way considered desirable by the Auxiliary." Membership of the Auxiliary was open to any woman upon enrolment of a membership fee of fifty cents, and Mrs. Elizabeth Jane Van Valkenburg (nee Chalmers) was named the first President. The Women's Auxiliary raised funds through membership fees, bridge parties, raffles, a Gift Cart, and teas at graduation, hospital days, and holidays. In return, the Auxiliary donated furniture and supplies to the hospital; donated subscriptions, flowers and drapes to the nurses' home; placed Christmas trees and flowers in the wards at Christmas; and placed handmade favours on patients' trays at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. The Auxiliary awarded an annual prize in Obstetrical Nursing to a graduate of the School of Nursing. The Women's Auxiliary of the Regina General Hospital disbanded in 1969.

SIFC is an Indian controlled university college. The College offers undergraduate and graduate university courses in an environment of Indian cultural affirmation. While being academically and physically part of the university, it hires its own faculty and staff, offers unique programs, and has a personalized student services department. Academically, students are members of the University of Regina and SIFC. The College operates under the mandate and control of the Indian Governments of Saskatchewan through a Board of Governors (formerly, Board of Directors) representatives of the Chiefs of Saskatchewan.

In 1969 the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians (Today the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, FSIN) launched a task-force on Education which produced a two volume report.
SIFC, federated with the University of Regina in 1976, is fully accredited.

September, 1976, SIFC opens with 9 students and offered classes in Indian studies, Indian Languages, Social Work, Fine Arts, Social Sciences, and the Indian Teacher Education.

June 21, 2003 – The name of the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College is officially changed to the First Nations University of Canada.

St. Thomas More College, commonly called "STM," was established as a federated college of the University of Saskatchewan in 1936. The pre-history of the college goes back to 1913, with the public announcement by a group of Saskatoon Catholics that they hoped to establish a Catholic college at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1926, the Newman Society was formed and permission was granted for Fr. Basil Markle to come from Toronto to begin the Scholastic Philosophy Foundation at the university. In 1927 a house was constructed adjacent to the campus to provide a residence for Fr. Markle and a chapel and Newman clubrooms for the Catholic students at the university. In 1936, the bishops of Saskatchewan agreed to the establishment of a Catholic college "sometime in the future," but stated that, in view of the Depression economy, "it was absolutely impossible at this time." Still the Saskatoon laymen went ahead and called in Fr. Henry Carr of the Basilian Fathers of Toronto to meet with University President Walter Murray and see whether something could be done. As a result of the meetings of Carr and Murray and further negotiations with the bishops of Saskatchewan, St. Thomas More College was established by the Basilians and began operating as an Arts college affiliated with the University, with 39 students enrolled that first year (1936-37). The federated status of the college was formally acknowledged by the university in 1953. In 1943 an addition was added to the original white house to accommodate the larger numbers of students. A stone building was constructed and opened in 1956/57, with additional wings added in 1963 and 1969.