Fonds F2110 - Queen's University. Faculty of Health Sciences fonds

The Faculty of Health Sciences was established in 1854, after more than a decade of effort by Queen's officials to add a medical school to the young University. It began in a small limestone house at 75 Princess Street, soon thereafter moving to Summerhill, where the rest of the University was located. In 1858, it moved into the first permanent building that Queen's built for itself: the Old Medical Building. In 1866, however, the Faculty split from the University after medical professors – less theologically-minded than their colleagues – protested against having to make a public declaration of the Presbyterian faith. The Faculty became the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Kingston (RCPSK), which retained a loose affiliation with the University. The RCPSK eventually reunited with Queen's in 1892, in order to share resources and expertise.

The Faculty grew enormously in the 20th century, evolving into one of Canada's premier centres for medical research, as well as teaching. In recent decades, the most important development in medical education was the establishment in the 1960s of the Kingston Health Sciences Centre, which brought the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Nursing together with local hospitals to provide cooperative facilities for exemplary patient care, research, and training. Planning for a nursing program at Queen's began in 1941 The first students were admitted in the Fall of 1942 and the first Director of the School of Nursing was appointed in 1946. In 1979, the School of Rehabilitation Therapy, originally a stand alone unit, became part of the Faculty.

In 1998, the School of Medicine and School of Rehabilitation Therapy were joined by the School of Nursing to become the current Faculty of Health Sciences. Today the Faculty has about 330 full-time faculty members but many more part-time, since every doctor with attending privileges at Kingston General Hospital, Hotel Dieu Hospital, and Providence Continuing Care Centre's St. Mary's of the Lake Hospital site normally holds a faculty appointment in the School of Medicine as well. The Faculty of Health Sciences forms the academic core of the Academic Health Sciences Centre, and is also part of the Health Care Network of Southeastern Ontario. Academic programs are based on campus but are distributed throughout southeastern Ontario's health care facilities, including affiliations with Quinte Healthcare Corporation, Lakeridge Hospital, Peterborough, Perth, Brockville, Weeneebayko (Moose Factory) being amongst many other sites. The innovative Alternative Funding Plan (AFP), a contractual agreement of SEAMO and the Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care and the Ministry of Community & Social Services, provides stable funding for the delivery of research, education and extensive tertiary, secondary and some primary care in a region of over one million people.

The Faculty offers programs in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education; undergraduate education in Physical and Occupational Therapy, and graduate education in Rehabilitation Science; undergraduate and postgraduate education in Nursing, including the Nurse Practitioner Program; graduate education in the Life Sciences; and collaborative programs in Respiratory Therapy and in X-Ray Technology. Main offices of the Faculty are located in Botterell Hall.

Degrees conferred by the Faculty include: Doctor of Medicine (MD), Bachelor of Nursing Sciences (BNSc), Master of Science, Nursing (MSc), Bachelor of Science Physical Therapy (B.Sc. P.T.), Bachelor of Science, Occupational Therapy (B.Sc.O.T.), Master of Science, Rehabilitation Science (M.Sc.), Doctor of Philosophy, Rehabilitation Science (Ph.D.), Master of Science, Life Sciences (M.Sc.), Doctor of Philosophy, Life Sciences (Ph.D.) .Schools under the auspisces of the Faculty of Health Sciences include: Medicine, Nursing, Rehabilitation TherapyDepartments: Anatomy & Cell Biology, Anesthesiology, Biochemistry, Community Health & Epidemiology, Diagnostic Radiology, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Oncology, Opthalmology, Otolaryngology, Pathology, Pediatrics, Pharmcology & Toxicology, Physiology, Psychiatry, Rehabilition Medicine, Surgery and Urology.

The Faculty of Health Sciences established the Tony Travill Debate in memory of Professor A.A.Travill (1925-1996), MBBS(London), MRCS(Eng), LRCP(London), MSc(Med)(Queen's), former head of the Anatomy Department at Queen's University (1969-1978). Dr Travill was an excellent teacher, physician, philosopher and historian, who was a devotee of logical argument and witty debate. This annual event allows medical researchers to debate a controversial topic in medicine from two different perspectives, both supported by research.