2023 Nursing Research Day to showcase graduate students’ thesis work

Our Nursing Research Day has been an annual event at UCalgary Nursing since 2017. It gives graduate students an opportunity to share their work, hear new perspectives, and showcase nursing research.

This year, the event is being held virtually March 9 from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. online. The event offers UCalgary Nursing graduate students to present research they’ve been working on as part of their thesis work. It also allows them an opportunity to practice their poster or oral presentations, similar to what they would experience at a formal conference.

“Our graduate students are doing such amazing research and I’m happy that we are coming together to hear about their projects and celebrate their incredible work,” says Marc Hall, research specialist for UCalgary Nursing who organizes the event with the Nursing Research Office.

“The Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary is one of the top nursing faculties in research in the country. At the heart of this are our faculty members and their students who are conducting research that is life-changing, practice-changing, and research-changing," says Dr. Nancy Moules, associate dean (research), UCalgary Nursing. 

"We are so proud of our graduate students and so honored that they share their work with us.”

2023 Participants

Sandra Carless-Kane

Exploring the Processes and Strategies Undergraduate Nursing Students Use to Transfer Learning From Classroom Settings Into Clinical Nursing Practice

She’s a third-year doctoral student with over 10 years experience in rural acute and community nursing practice. Her teaching experience includes over 20 years of classroom, nursing lab, and clinical instruction in practical nurse and undergraduate nursing programs. “The purpose of my research study is to develop an understanding of how nursing students transfer classroom knowledge into clinical nursing practice,” she says.

Jennifer Chung

The experiences of transgender people who seek care for chronic health conditions: A narrative inquiry

Jennifer has been a registered nurse since 2010, and has experience in paediatrics, NICU, postpartum health, and community health. She’s currently in the Master of Nursing program and her research interest is in 2SLGBTQ+ health with a focus on the experiences of transgender people who seek care for chronic health conditions.

“The stories lived and told by participants can inform healthcare providers about the support transgender individuals need so they receive quality care,” she says. “This study can advance nurses’ knowledge and caring, to promote greater health equity, diversity, and inclusivity for transgender individuals.”

Nancy Clark

Examining the Experience of Recurrent Acute Coronary Syndrome in Younger Men

Nancy Clark is the clinical lead acute care nurse practitioner (NP) for the coronary care unit and cardiology NP manager at the Rockyview General Hospital. As a doctoral student, she is researching patients who have experienced a recurrent acute coronary syndrome event. More men than women will have an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) event related to coronary artery disease (CAD). Having a recurrent ACS event, which bring even higher morbidity and mortality risk, can cause psychological and emotional distress in patients of any age.

“The research topic for this exploration was to better understand the experiences of a recurrent ACS event as a younger man, identifying potential gaps to comprehensive care for this population.”

Sara Dolan

Investigating Healthcare Educators’ Interprofessional Socialization Following an Interprofessional Simulation Facilitator Training Program: A Mixed Methods Proposal

Sara has been a nurse for over 12 years and moved to Calgary from the United States to pursue her PhD in 2021. She worked as a critical care nurse on a rapid response team and as nursing faculty for undergraduate programs in New Jersey. Her research interest lies in interprofessional socialization, simulation, and patient safety.

Interprofessional simulation has been shown to have a positive impact on patient safety; however, trained simulation facilitators are needed to provide adequate interprofessional simulation opportunities for practising professionals. “My aim in conducting this study is to examine the effect of an interprofessional simulation facilitator training on the interprofessional socialization (IS) of healthcare educators,” she says.

Margarita Gil

Self-care from immigrant student perspectives

Born in Colombia, Margarita is a University of Calgary alumni and master’s thesis-based student. She has 12 years of experience as a Registered Nurse has influenced her interest in different areas of nursing including older adult care, palliative care, immigrant populations, and nursing education. 

Her research aims to understand the different ways immigrant undergraduate nursing students understand the concept of self-care and experience self-care practices.

Julia Imanoff

Trauma-informed care and cultural humility in perinatal nursing 

Julia is a Registered Nurse with a specialty in perinatal nursing who has worked with families for over a decade supporting their transitions into parenthood. She’s a doctoral student who is exploring women's experience of psychologically traumatic births and the effects on family relationships.

“Given the traumatizing nature of birth experiences, nurses have the opportunity to influence how they care for women by expanding their understanding of the complex and highly subjective nature of women's birth experiences,” she says.

Bethany Trotter

Expectations of Care in the ICU

Bethany Trotter is a master’s thesis-based student who works at the Rockyview ICU/CCU as a member of the outreach team. She moved from Thunderbay, Ontario to Calgary in 2011. She found her passion in critical care and over the years, her experience has inspired her to improve critical care through research.

Explaining critical illness to family members of a patient admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a sensitive and challenging duty for nurses and all healthcare providers. “This project will help better understand the Canadian public's expectations for ICU staff to improve communication,” she says.

Katie Webber

Nurse-Parent Relational Complexity Within Pediatric Oncology Contexts: Navigating Closeness, Conflict, and Online and Offline Communication

Katie started her career as a paediatric oncology nurse in 2011 and she is currently working on her doctoral research which is focused on understanding relational complexity in parent-nurse relationships within paediatric oncology contexts. As a result of the complex nature of childhood cancer, involving intense treatments and extended hospital stays, it is not uncommon for nurses and parents to develop meaningful and close relationships. However, this closeness may lead to dilemmas about how to navigate professional boundaries.

“The purpose of this research was to seek to understand nurses’ and parents’ perspectives about their relationships with one another, including the potential influence of social media on these relationships,” she says.

Kokab Younis

Exploring Barriers and Facilitators in Self-Management of Diabetes Among End-Stage Kidney Disease Patients Receiving Dialysis: An Interpretive Descriptive Study

She’s a master’s thesis-based student of Dr. Graham McCaffrey and Dr. Rob Quinn whose focus is around quality improvement and patient-oriented research in end-stage kidney disease population with an emphasis on diabetes risk factors and self-management. The objective of her study will be to explore and understand barriers and facilitators to diabetes self-management among patients with end-stage kidney disease who have the additional burden of adapting to dialysis therapy.

Carina Zhu

Understanding women's experiences of infertility

Doctoral student Carina Zhu BN’06 has worked in many clinical settings, including harm reduction, acute care, mental health outreach, and sexual and reproductive health. She is exploring how might we understanding women’s experiences with infertility through the lens of grief. Within nursing practice and nursing education, the focus on women’s health has been predicated on their connection to a child, evidenced by “maternal/child” and “obstetrics/gynecology” practice specialties. Nurses’ focus on fertile women have silenced those who are not.

 “With this research study, I hope to confront that norm. I hope to offer an expanded understanding of infertility (and the sociopolitical factors that contribute to it) that may allow nurses’ care to accommodate women’s experiences of grief.”