GSNA Symposium 2021

This year’s Graduate Students in Nursing Association (GSNA) Symposium took place online on October 15, 2021. GSNA President, Abdul-Fatawuy Abdulai opened the event with a welcome and introduction of a panel discussion. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc, who was joined by panelists Dr. Manon Ranger, Dr. Margaret Moss, Dr. Lillian Hung, Dr. Kristen Haase, and Mr. Abdulai.

The panel discussion focussed on innovation in nursing. Dr. Hung and Mr. Abdulai explained how innovation in technology transforms some nursing care. Dr. Haase considered how innovation in relational practice is not just about technology but also about relationships and new ways of engaging. To illustrate that innovation can also mean a return to tradition, Dr. Moss pointed to some of the traditional ways of knowing that nurses are learning and relearning to provide culturally safe care.

Dr. Ranger talked about how her research with animal models is used to understand newborn pain and how using that information to improve treatment requires translation in the NICU. The panel concluded that collaboration across disciplines is one important means of sparking continued innovation in nursing.

Dr. Vicky Bungay presented the keynote address Interrelationships between research funding and health research: A Canadian Exemplar.

Research is critical to support an urgent global priority to promote the health and human rights of adults engaged in sex work. But the manner in which research funds are allocated for this enterprise requires scrutiny. This talk reports on a study examining funding allocation for sex work-related health research in Canada.

The research team examined 64 operating grants awarded between 2003 and 2020.

• Sex workers’ health is problematized disproportionately in a street marketplace context that centers on HIV and sexually transmitted infections.
• Limited work attends to the socio-structural context of sex work and instead perpetuates stigmatizing narratives about sex work.
• Public health intervention studies are rare, presenting a barrier for implementing and evaluating evidence-based health promotion strategies.
• Research projects were conducted by a small number of highly-networked, geographically-clustered researchers, leaving gaps in research that considers the complexity of sex work.

Dr. Bungay concluded that the funding process may be limiting the range of health issues being addressed and privileging a small community of researchers, inadvertently serving to worsen health inequities among some sex work communities.

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Following the address, attendees chose to participate in breakout rooms conducted by these presenters.

Practice Based Innovations

• Improving transfusion reaction reporting at Vancouver General Hospital: a quality improvement initiative with Alexa Clark
• The Feasibility of a social media-based Diabetic Foot Self-Management Program during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada with Helen Obilor
• Characteristics Associated with Opioid Deprescribing in Long-Term Care in Ontario: A Population-Based Cohort Study with Andrea Rochon
• Caregiver participation in NICU research: a qualitative analysis with Connie Ku
• Human Factors Analysis of a Canadian COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Centre with Alexa Clark

Equity & Change Innovations

• Reproductive rainbow: Exploring fertility intentions and family planning experiences within the 2SLGBTQ community with Kerry Marshall
• Using photovoice to understand experiences of opioid use among sexual and gender minority youth with Trevor Goodyear
• Improving Care and Outcomes for Women Affected by INOCA with Nicole Tegg
• Exploring patient safety in long-term care homes from the perspectives of nursing staff and residents: A mixed methods research with Ibrahim Abughori

Research Methods Innovations

• The value of patient engagement in pediatric research: a clinical research journey curated by super hero kids with Linda Warner
• Exploring the ethics of self-experimentation through ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ with Michelle Gagnon

Global Health Innovations

• Experiences of Sexuality among Pakistani-descent Adolescent Girls Living in Canada – “It feels like I live in two different worlds” with Neelam Pujani
• Women’s experiences and perception of reproductive health access in rural Ghana with Eunice Bawafaa