Research & Scholarship
The UBC Okanagan School of Nursing is committed to supporting collaborative, interdisciplinary research and scholarship for faculty and students at the undergraduate and graduate level. Faculty in the School of Nursing are actively engaged in a wide variety of funded research, scholarly activity and professional leadership. Listed below are a few examples of the research that is being carried out by faculty members in the School of Nursing:
Families and Life Threatening Illness
Dr. Carole Robinson’s research focuses on family health and wellbeing in the context of life threatening illness and end-of-life. Her research is intervention focused and spans the spectrum from prevention to assisting families to live well while a member is dying. One stream of research aims to influence continued family smoking when there is a diagnosis of lung cancer in the family. Another stream is concerned with enhancing rural palliative care and supporting rural family palliative caregivers. She is a member of a large collaborative team investigating transitions in care for older persons living in nursing homes and requiring care in a hospital emergency department. Here again, there is a focus on the consequences of system reliance on family caregivers. She is beginning work in the area of family caregiving in the circumstance of early stage dementia and is shaping gender sensitive interventions in several projects. Dr. Robinson is a PORT (Psychosocial Oncology Research Training) mentor and a member of the BC Cancer Agency Sociobehavioral Research Centre.
Mobility in Aging Populations
Dr. Kathy Rush's program of research in the area of mobility in the older population is currently focusing on the multi-factorial linkages between falls and weakness, one of its primary risk factors. The project entitled Weakness in Geriatrics Study (WinGS), emphasizes the role of "place" and the perspective of rural elders in understanding the weakness-fall dynamic. The research work brings together a mutlidisciplinary team represented by faculty from UBC Okanagan, University of Northern BC, University of Victoria and partners from the Interior Health Authority.
Indigenous Health, Aboriginal Nursing and Policy Change
Donna Kurtz, as an Aboriginal researcher, is committed to culturally safe participatory indigenous and feminist research that respects cultural values, protocols, and expectations of clients, families, and communities. Her current collaborative research includes health inequity and disparity of urban Aboriginal peoples and health policy change, Aboriginal nursing recruitment, retention and career paths, Metis health promotion, and Aboriginal health curriculum development and delivery for health care professionals.
Chronic Disease Prevention in Youth
Doris Callaghan's research interests are in the area of healthy living and chronic disease prevention in youth. Preventing tobacco use in young adults has been a focus of her work. She is currently participating in VOICE Study 2 which is a Community Based Participatory Action Research project in which students and organizational leader collaborate to sustain healthy campus community development at UBC Okanagan. In addition she is completing research evaluating the Employed Student Nurse experience of UBC O nursing students.
Health, Ethics and Diversity
Dr. Barb Pesut, Canada Research Chair in Health, Ethics and Diversity, aspires to improve care for individuals at end-of-life who are at risk for health disparities because of geographic, cultural or social differences. Canadian socio-demographic trends indicate that end-of-life care, rurality, and religious/spiritual diversity are significant intersecting influences that impact the quality, accessibility and sustainability of health service delivery. Dr. Pesut's research, with its unique emphasis on urban/rural and religious/spiritual diversity, provides important and timely knowledge of how to provide high quality care at end-of-life. Her research lab is housed at the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus, ASC 287B.
For more information about these and other research and scholarship activities, please visit the Faculty of Health and Social Development website.
Last reviewed 
10/3/2011 11:03:23 AM
