The SPNA, upon reviewing the report, concurred with all of the recommendations except the last one. In its response to the report, the SPNA recommended that the curriculum committee be a central body with representation from each of the three schools.⁹⁴

The Deputy Minister of Public Health, S. L. Skoll, also submitted a response to the 'Peyson Report'.

If we were to closely examine the training courses of the RN's and PN's, we would find there is much common ground. In other words, as I see it, after receiving a basic 'core' of training the student could specialize in either general nursing or psychiatric nursing. It seems to me that such a proposal, if it could be implemented, would offer every advantage.⁹⁵

Dr. C. M. Smith, Executive Director of Psychiatric Services, proposed that a two-year program could be set up which would, in some respects, be similar to that for general nurses. But it would include more emphasis on supervised work with psychiatric patients and development of community skills.

In June 1971, Larry Ellis produced a report entitled 'Psychiatric Nursing In Saskatchewan: A Strategy for Development', which became known as the 'Ellis Report'. It was the product of an inquiry undertaken because of concern about the high failure and attrition rates among those aspiring to become psychiatric nurses, and the high cost of their education.⁹⁶

The recommendations of the Peyson Report opened another long process of negotiation, and the SPNA took the initiative in recommending a major restructuring of the training program to the Psychiatric Services Branch. In some ways, this acted as a catalyst for the Department of Public Health to appoint Ellis to study these concerns. Other factors, however, also led to the study: the fact that the two mental hospitals were rapidly reducing their patient population, the need to find a new location for the training of psychiatric nurses, and the need to introduce new features into the program and to increase the amount of training.⁹⁷

As a result of responses to a questionnaire developed for the study, Ellis reported that, firstly, there was a 'lack of a precise functional definition of a psychiatric nurse.' He also noted:

That both psychiatric nurses and registered nurses are capable of providing fundamental nursing care for both medical and emotional problems of the patients; that student attrition rates throughout all parts of the psychiatric nursing education program were found to be much too high particularly in comparison with general nursing, and that the costs of the psychiatric nursing education program seemed high considering the annual output of qualified psychiatric nurses.⁹⁸

Ellis had considered the feasibility of developing a core program and reported:

If centralization of the didactic portion of the PN's training could be in the same location as that of the RN's, then coring of the curriculum would be possible, mainly in the first year of the two programs.

Related to this, Ellis also recommended that responsibility for the education of psychiatric nurses be transferred from the Department of Public Health to the Department of Education and that a new program be established in post- secondary institutions along with other health science disciplines. The program should be distinct, with its own head who was a member of the SPNA.⁹⁹

The SRNA disagreed with many of Ellis' recommendations. It claimed that it could not support the proposal that the head of the psychiatric nursing program be a psychiatric nurse. Further it had difficulties with the proposed program for psychiatric nurses.¹⁰⁰

Not surprisingly, the SRNA's position was challenged in The Psychiatric Nurse. The editor argued that the SRNA had not read the Ellis report in its entirety and that the conclusions in the report were, for the most part, considered true and valid by the SPNA. The SRNA was urged to stop promoting unwarranted recommendations in respect to psychiatric nursing education which were deliberately aimed at thwarting the efforts of others to maintain and enhance an already viable and proven program.¹⁰¹

Although the SPNA endorsed most of the Ellis Report's recommendations, it did not advocate transfer of authority to the Department of Education. With the release of the report, the SPNA Council called an emergency meeting. Council members contended they had had insufficient time to study the report and that government officials had been reluctant to meet with them. They also agreed that should the proposed transfer occur, there ought to be built-in safeguards to ensure the uniqueness of their profession.

The Council did send a letter to the Department of Public Health explaining its reservations and agreements with the report. It stated that at no time had SPNA advocated phasing out the Schools of Psychiatric Nursing, nor could it visualize the centralization of the school within any one type of facility. SPNA objected to getting 'everyone into the same boat, an administrative convenience,' and strongly opposed any move to transfer psychiatric nursing education.¹⁰²

On November 12, 1971 Walter Smishek, Minister of Public Health in Allen Blakeney's New Democratic Party government, spoke at a psychiatric nurses' graduation. He indicated that the gradual reduction (through attrition and failure) of the number of candidates qualifying as psychiatric nurses over the past five years had become a source of real concern. In addition, he told the graduates that the possibility of developing a new centralized educational program was being discussed as a means of dealing with the situation.¹⁰³

Less than one year later this centralized program at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences in Regina became a reality. November 17, 1972 marked the last graduation exercises held at Weyburn. Twenty-two psychiatric nurses, the final graduating class from the former Saskatchewan Hospital, were honored on this occasion. The last graduation exercises were held in North Battleford and Moose Jaw in 1973.

In September 1972 for the first time in the history of psychiatric nursing in Saskatchewan, students in psychiatric nursing training became, in fact, students. They now had to pay tuition and take all classroom instruction at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences. They were enrolled in the Health Sciences Division which also included Dental Nursing, Diploma Nursing and Nursing Assistant programs. Keith Gannon, a psychiatric nurse, was appointed as the first program head for Psychiatric Nursing at the new institution.¹⁰⁴