Recipients of CANR Awards of Research Excellence for 2003
New Investigator Award - Dr. Nicole Letourneau, RN DEd
Practitioner/Research Award - Margaret Eades, N. MSc.(A), CON(C)
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New Investigator Award for 2003
Dr. Nicole Letourneau, RN DEd
Dr. Nicole Letourneau is Assistant Professor, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta where she has worked since 1999.
She was granted her BScN from the University of New Brunswick in 1991, her MN in 1994 and PhD in 1998 from the University of Alberta, and her Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training Instructor Certificate and Reliability Certificate from the University of Washington in 1996.
During the terms of her study, Dr. Letourneau was employed as a practicing nurse in general pediatrics, pediatric intensive care, and pediatric homecare. As well, Dr. Letourneau was employed as research assistant, research associate (project coordinator), and teaching assistant at the University of Alberta.
Her research funding has included grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, Health Canada, and U of A Perinatal Research Centre.
Dr. Letourneau has received many awards and honours including Post Doctoral Fellowships from the Medical Research Council of Canada/Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research; an Incentive Award from the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.
Notable publications have appeared in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, Journal of Family Nursing, Infant Mental Health Journal, Journal of Pediatric Nursing, Child: Care, Health & Development, Journal of Advanced Nursing, and Children's Health Care.
She is a member of the Vanier Institute of the Family, National Council on Family Relations, Society for Research in Child Development, Society for Research on Adolescence, International Society on Infant Studies, Canadian Nurses Association, Nurses Association of New Brunswick, Alberta Association of Registered Nurses, and Sigma Theta Tau International, Mu Sigma Chapter.
Research Focus
The overarching goal of my research program is to develop and test interventions to support the development of vulnerable infants, children, and youth. The impact of children's environment on their development and health is particularly salient. Children's development is impacted by parent-child relationship quality, supportive relationships, socioeconomic status, parents' educational attainment and skills, and parental mental health. These are all subjects of study within my research program.
Selected Publications
Letourneau, N., Neufeld, S., Drummond, J. & Barnfather, A. (2003). Deciding on surgery: Supporting parents of infants with craniosynostosis. Axon, 24(3), 24-29.
Bruce, B., Letourneau, N., Larocque, S., Ritchie, J., Dennis, C., & Elliott, R. (2002). Pediatric health-care professionals perceptions and practices of family-centred care in three Canadian hospitals. Journal of Family Nursing, 8(4), 408-429.
Elliott, R., Reilly, S., Drummond, J., & Letourneau, N. (2002). The effect of different soothing interventions on infant crying and on parent-infant interaction. Infant Mental Health Journal, 23(3), 301-328.
Letourneau, N., Drummond, J., Fleming, D., Kysela, G., McDonald, L., & Stewart, M (2001). Supporting parents: Can intervention improve parent-child relationships? Journal of Family Nursing, 7, 159-187.
Letourneau, N. (2001). Improving adolescent parent-infant interactions: A pilot study. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 16, 53-62.
Letourneau, N. (2001). Attrition among adolescents involved in a parenting program. Child: Care, Health & Development, 27, 183-186.
Drummond, J., Letourneau, N., Neufeld, S., Harvey, H., Elliott, R. & Reilly, S. (1999). Infant crying and parent-infant interaction: Theory and measurement. Infant Mental Health Journal, 20 (4), 452-465.
Letourneau, N. (1997). Fostering resiliency in infants and young children through parent-infant interaction. Infants and Young Children, 9 (3), 36-45
Letourneau, N. & Elliott, M. (1996). Pediatric health care professionals' perceptions and practices of family-centred care. Children's Health Care, 25 (3), 157-174.
Practitioner/Research Award for 2003
Margaret Eades, N. MSc.(A), CON(C)
Synopsis of Margaret’s research-related activities
Nursing Research Activities in Clinical Practice
Nurses ask and generate practice related questions as part of their critical thinking process everyday. Supporting, and fostering this learned process helps reinforce the importance of inquiry for optimal patient outcomes. What is the evidence that one practice is better than another? Should we continue to practice in a specific way? Is there a reason for what seems to be traditional?
Finding and making opportunities where nurses have time to reflect on clinical issues or explore available alternatives and the evidence for effectiveness is an important part of the my work as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. The CNS can provide on the spot supportive guidance or can encourage the nurse to look at relevant literature before they construct answers to be tried out in practice. The CNS can support a nurse's active involvement in building on their learning by helping her/him to conduct simple literature searches, by asking patients/family who are directly involved, by accessing online nursing research and healthcare literature to support or refute an argument or to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention. Equally important is effective timely individual and group follow-up and building of hypothesis testing.
The CNS can through role modeling contribute to building the acceptability of a climate of inquiry in the clinical setting. Nurses need to know that time used to formulate and ask questions is valued. Nurses can be encouraged to value learning to look for answers to support or reject for their hypotheses. Questions can arise from rounds, practice, articles or from quires raised in Interdisciplinary Forums. Creating a climate where exploration and questioning is expected frees nurses to inquire, use the credible resources available, support nursing research data collection and risk learning to use new evidence to support their practices. Answers to the nurse’s questions can improve care practices and outcomes for patients and families.
Main Focuses of research:
My beginning program focused on learning about qualitative methods that could be helpful to defining and characterizing what patients and family care givers are experiencing or how their experiences affect their beliefs, perceptions and personal learning. Learning to put qualitative research methods into practice, to develop researchable questions and develop proposals was done in collaboration with nurse researchers & colleagues who had similar interests. As we learned the complexity of the questions also grew.
Examples:
Eades, M., & Giguère, M. (1997) Care of the Patient Having a Prostatectomy. Canadian Oncology Nursing Journal. . 7(4). 237-8.
Eades, M., Laizner, A., Mountjoy, A., Giguère, M., Oliver, C., Burnett, C., Frisch, S. & Bouchard, L. (1998) What have we learned about people with cancer and fatigue? Canadian Oncology Nursing Journal 8(1), 58.
Buttery, J., Eades, M., Frisch, S., Giguère, M., Mountjoy, A. (1999) Family response to difficult hospitalization: The phenomenon of working through. Journal of Clinical Nursing . 8, 459-466.
Frisch, S.R., *Laizner, A.M., Eades, M., Mountjoy, A., & Giguere, M., (1999). Analyzing qualitative data: Strategies women use to manage breast cancer fatigue. {Poster presentation} Montreal General Hospital, 1999 Nurses and Research in Perspective Day: Evidenced–based nursing practice. Montreal, Que
As more research into Cancer related fatigue ( CRF ) became available from study publications the new findings along with the results of our small clinical studies were brought back to clinical and research groups discussions. As we continued working together some of these findings were incorporated into the ongoing process of qualitative analysis and information was brought back to clinical setting as examples that supports practice.
Examples:
1998 (Jan 1 - Dec 31) Fatigue in breast cancer treatment: Meaning and effect on social functioning, Investigator, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation . Frisch, S., Laizner, A., Eades, M., Mountjoy, A., Giguére, M., Oliver, C. & Burnett, C. Funded by Canadian Breast Cancer foundation.
Study design : Qualitative Exploratory Discriptive: Repeat Interviews with 48 first time & 43 second time interviews. Sample: Women with Breast Cancer (Anglophone or Francophone) at the beginning, middle or end of treatment with BMT, Radiotherapy alone, Chemotherapy alone or combined Radio/Chemo.
Findings presented
*Laizner, A.M., *Eades, M., Cooke, A.M., Mountjoy, A., Giguere, M., Frisch, S., (2001). The Vital Pursuit of Strategies to Manage Cancer-related Fatigue. 13e Conference annuelle, Association Canadienne des Infirmieres en Oncologie, L’ art de communiquer: se raconter pour se decouvrir Quebec, Que
Eades, M. & Cassidy, D. (April 2001) Rehabilitation for Persons with a Diagnosis of Cancer. Recognizing these patient’s concerns. The Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital.
My colleagues and I continued to follow the research literature about Fatigue in Breast Cancer, and other conditions to bring back to our patients, families, students and the nurses in the clinical setting. I began building support for the notion of the importance of symptoms experienced and physical loses experienced after a diagnosis of cancer questioning whether principles of rehabilitation could benefit our patients with a diagnosis of cancer.
Examples:
Eades, M., (1994). Models of Collaborative Research. The Annual National Cancer Institute of Canada, Clinical Trials Spring Conference . Montreal, Quebec
*Eades, M., & Giguére, M., (1995) Prostatectomy: Addressing the patient's unspoken rehabilitation needs. [Poster Presentation] The Second National Rehabilitation Conference . Montreal
Eades, M. (1997) Women and Cancer: Research based findings. Nurses and Research in Perspective Conference . The Montreal General Hospital.
Eades, M., (1999) Rehabilitation in Cancer Care. Guest speaker to Interdisciplinary Staff at the Constance Lethbridge Rehabilitation Centre, Montreal.
Eades, M., (2000). Gérer la fatigue. Groupe de soutien, “Reseau d’Espoir,” Centre pour le Traitment et L’Etudes Des Tumeurs Cérébrales, Hôpital Neurologique De Montréal .
*Merry, L., Eades M, Assousa, S., Constantin, J. (2001) Impact of Preceptorship, Presentations and the Learning Environment on Nursing Students’ Learning About Oncology Nursing. {Poster Presentation}. Nurses and Research in Perspective.
*Laizner, A.M., *Eades, M., Cooke, A.M., Mountjoy, A., Giguere, M., Frisch, S., (Oct. 2001). The Vital Pursuit of Strategies to Manage Cancer-related Fatigue. Facing the Challenges of Breast Cancer – A Practical Approach, CAN SUPPORT- FAIRE FACE, Omni Hotel, Montreal.
To address the notion of the relevance of rehabilitation for persons with a diagnosis of cancer and receiving treatment a group consisting of Managers of Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Private Physiotherapy Clinic, Oncology Nursing (Inpatient and Ambulatory Clinics) and the Director of Nursing Research was formed to explore both the research evidence and clinical practice needs of this ambulatory population. After a number of meetings the following research study was developed, funded and carried out. This study was a continuation of research being conducted to develop programs of care to address cancer patient’s functional impairments and prevent further disabilities. This work has resulted in allocation of resources to rehabilitation of this population.
2001 (June-August) Feasibility Study: Determining the impact of cancer treatment on cancer patient’s physical functioning and daily activities during periods of chemotherapy. Co-investigator, McGill University Faculty of Medicine Summer Student Research Bursary 2001 . to Isrep M. Application: Eades, M., McKinley, P., Frisch, S., Constantin, J., Shaw M., Burnett, S., Dalzell, M.A., Isrep, M.
Study Design : Discriptine prospective cross-sectional study. 44 patients with a diagnosis of lung , breast, or colorectal cancer were recruited
Purpose: To assess a set of screening tools for their potential effectiveness in identifying early changes in sensation, mobility and function and their impact on Quality of Life.
Findings Presented:
*Eades, M., McKinley, P., Frisch, S., Constantin, J., Shaw M., Burnett, S., Dalzell, M.A., Isrep, M (2002) Feasibility Study: Determining the impact of cancer treatment on cancer patient’s physical functioning and daily activities during periods of chemotherapy. 14th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Oncology Nurses, Winnipeg.
The responsibility for dissemination of study findings is no less important then other aspects of the research process. Findings from the last study were shared with the Interdisciplinary Team at Rounds and forms a part in ongoing discussions. Learning to write for publication is time consuming and rigorous process but essential to build upon what is known beyond immediate practice and to provide evidence to inform further questioning and research development. While writing for publication is one way of informing, taking what has been learned back to practice and testing out models of nursing can be another.
2002- 2004 Continuity of Care by a Symptom Management Nurse Consultant for Patients with Lung Cancer and Its Impact on their Symptom Distress, Quality of Life, Use of Health Care Resources and Impact on their Caregiver. Andréanne Saucier, Myriam Skrutkowski, and Margaret Eades (Co-Principal Investigators), Judith Ritchie, Linda Ofiara, Marika Swidzinski, (Co-Investigators).
Study design : Randomized Clinical Trial to assess the impact of the implementation of a Symptom management Nurse Consultant who provides specialized care and continuity to Breast or Lung Cancer Patients and their family caregiver. Study in progress.
CANR - Last Updated November 01, 2011, 16:19:37 MST/MDT
