The free exhibit will be on view Jan. 16 and 17 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the atrium of the Helen Glass Centre for Nursing, home of the College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

It will also be displayed at CancerCare Manitoba, second floor, on Jan. 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Jan. 20 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Titled I’m Still Here: Healing through Art after Cancer, the exhibit shows how cancer patients processed their journey through the disease as part of a therapy group that combined mindfulness practices with expressive art. The group was created as part of a study in 2019.

The study was led by Dr. Kendra Rieger, adjunct professor of nursing at UM and associate professor of nursing at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., along with UM nursing faculty members Dr. Tom Hack and Dr. Christina West and Miriam Duff, a psychosocial oncology clinician at CancerCare Manitoba.

In addition to works by 32 participants, the exhibit features quotes from the artists and a 15-minute audio guide that can be played on a smartphone.

“The audio guide includes narration interspersed with participant quotes read by actors, so it becomes an immersive experience as people are seeing the art and hearing from the participants in their own words,” says Rieger.

There was a diverse age range among participants, Rieger says, with the majority being white females, 65 per cent of whom were diagnosed with breast cancer. Four participants identified as male.

“Our findings revealed how mindfulness enabled participants to let go of their ruminations and calm their minds so they could fully engage in expressive arts activities,” the professor says.

“Combining mindfulness practices and art-making within a group context became a powerful way of discovering and processing hidden thoughts and emotions.”

The initial project was funded by the Manitoba Medical Service Foundation and The Winnipeg Foundation. The Manitoba Centre for Nursing Health Research at UM is the main funder of the exhibit. Rieger is also supported by a research chair funded by a Health Research B.C. Scholar Award.  

“One of our main purposes was to find out from cancer patients, in their own words, the benefits they derived from participating in the mindfulness-based arts therapy program,” says Hack.

“They told us how they were able to use art to process and reprocess their cancer experience. By processing it, they were better able to move through and beyond the experience.

“It was very moving for the participants. They became tearful as they shared what their artwork meant to them and what the group experience meant to them. We found that quite profound.”

The exhibit has been shown at an international conference on psycho-oncology in Toronto and at Trinity Western University.

Additional research team members included Patrick Faucher, lead of strategic and creative services and knowledge translation at the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, Alysha Creighton, an artist at Trinity Western University, Dr. Mandy Archibald, assistant professor at the College of Nursing, and Amie Zaborniak, a PhD student in nursing.

Dr. Roberta Woodgate, distinguished professor and Canada Research Chair in child and family engagement in health research and healthcare, received an award for research excellence from the association.

As the leader or co-leader of research studies, Woodgate has been involved in securing more than $46 million in grant funding since joining the college in 2000.

“There are a lot of colleagues of mine who do great work across the country, so to get this and be a part of a group of people who in the past have gotten it really feels good,” she said.

Woodgate, who is also a researcher with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM), has been a leader in engaging children and families in research, applying innovative approaches that amplify the voices of children and families most affected by the research. She has embraced a human rights-based approach that views the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental human right.

Woodgate has published over 150 peer-reviewed scholarly research articles and delivered hundreds of peer-reviewed papers at scientific meetings. She has earned a reputation as a world-class leader in child health and patient engagement and is valued for her expert contributions in research, service delivery and policy development at local, national, and internationals levels.

“I see awards like this as a way of really recognizing the voices of all the young people and families who have participated in my research,” she said.

Also recognized was Dr. Christina West, associate professor of nursing and researcher with CHRIM, who received an award for excellence in nursing education for a tenured faculty member.

West currently teaches advanced philosophy for nursing science, qualitative research methods, and evidence-informed practice at the master’s and doctoral levels.

The award particularly recognized a four-year program of experiential mentorship she developed and led with graduate students and faculty from the College of Nursing. She noted the contributions of Dr. Donna Martin, associate dean, graduate programs and Dr. Kendra Rieger, who is now an assistant professor at Trinity Western University.

“As part of these experiential mentorship initiatives, we simultaneously conducted three qualitative research studies to look at the experiences of graduate students and faculty, as well as to inform the ongoing development of the mentorship program,” West said.

The program has led to grad students and faculty members collaborating on two peer-reviewed publications in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods and Nursing Education Today.

“I believe we created community through this mentorship work, and I am proud to have been a part of these initiatives,” West said. “I also feel honoured to have witnessed the growth and leadership of the participating graduate students.”

Since Labouta began working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she spends most of the daytime caring for her two young children. Throughout the day, she is also writing emails and taking part in meetings over Zoom, a videoconferencing service.

Dr. Hagar Labouta, assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy, is collaborating on COVID-19 research with teams around the world while she works from home.

However, her focused research time takes place after she puts her children to sleep. Labouta, who is also a research scientist with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM), has been scheduling meetings with her team at 9 p.m. and working until 2 a.m.

“It took some time at the beginning to get a rhythm, but it’s something we have to accept and we are doing our best to deal with the changes,” she said.

Like Labouta, researchers across the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences are adapting to working from home.

For Dr. Meaghan Jones, assistant professor of biochemistry and medical genetics, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, her research looking at the impact of pre-natal exposure to inhaled particulate matter, like cigarette smoke or air pollution, has been put on hold with the temporary shuttering of her lab. But there is still plenty to do.

“My work really hasn’t changed at all,” said Jones, who is an investigator with CHRIM. “I’m still writing papers, writing grants and reading literature. I also have a couple of presentations coming up that I’m preparing for.”

To keep in touch with her team, Jones is holding weekly individual meetings and three lab meetings each week via Zoom. This is up from one weekly lab meeting because it’s a chance for everyone to check-in with each other, she said. It is also a chance to have a bit of fun. They are holding cooking contests where the team members each prepare the same recipe for lunch and they judge the dishes based on presentation.

While Jones has adjusted to working from home, one thing she misses about her Bannatyne campus office is her huge whiteboard. To adapt, she is using a large window in her home office to write on.

“I don’t know what the people who walk by my house think – a bunch of weird drawings and stuff on it – but it works,” she said.

Dr. Christina West, associate professor in the College of Nursing, (bottom) in a Zoom meeting with colleagues Dr. Kendra Rieger, assistant professor in the College of Nursing, (left) and Dr. Amanda Kenny, professor of rural health at LaTrobe University in Australia.

Dr. Christina West, associate professor in the College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, has had to put the data collection of her main project on hold. Her research uses expressive arts activities and digital storytelling to help children and families express their experiences of going through pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant. This qualitative research requires her team to spend time with children and their parents in the hospital, which they currently can’t do.

However, West has data that has already been collected to analyze, so she is focusing on that part of her research. She is also working on several systematic reviews, research papers and the creation of a new research website where family members, clinicians and administrator partners will be able to interact with her team in a private area of the website.

“It’s a very difficult situation for everybody,” said West, who is an investigator with CHRIM. “I think we have to think about how we care for ourselves in the midst of continuing on with our work so that we’re emotionally well enough to do that work, and to support others.”

To do that, West is building yoga and mindfulness practices into her day. She maintains a work routine and non-work routine, and has a space in her home dedicated to her work life.

For Labouta, an expert in using nanoparticles for drug delivery, her work relies on conducting experiments in her lab so her research is on hold. However, she has shifted her focus to work on COVID-19-related research with scientists at the University of Manitoba, in the United States and in Germany. One project she is working on is with a group from Georgia Tech on simulation experiments that hopefully can help with the creation of a new therapeutic strategy for COVID-19.

“Not everyone is a virologist, but all scientists have something they can contribute,” Labouta said. “What we really need right now from the scientific community is that everyone should contribute their own expertise. I see it as a cross-disciplinary initiative and collaboration in order to find a solution for this crisis.”

Keynote speaker Dr. Amanda Kenny, Violet Marshman professor of rural health in the La Trobe University Rural Health School in Bendigo, Australia, presented her lecture on the global need to “disrupt” health systems by investing more in services that will help Indigenous populations, people with disabilities or those that live in rural areas.

“I think many of the major health issues we have are not health issues, but social issues,” Kenny said. “In Australia, our hospitals are full of people. And why are they there? They’re there because we have these big hospitals that are symbols of political power, largely of men who like to cut ribbons and take photos outside them. They are full because we have a massive failure of social care and primary care.”

The event, attended by approximately 160 faculty, students and the public kicked off the Helen Glass Research Symposium, hosted by the College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. This is the third year the lecture was held at CMHR and the first time the entire symposium was held there.

The three-day, annual event also included workshops, doctoral student presentations and a graduate student research poster competition.

Social concerns continued to be a theme in the poster competition, where PhD candidate Tara Horrill won first place for her project that looks at access to oncology care for Indigenous people in Canada, a subject she became interested in while working at CancerCare Manitoba.

“During that time I noticed we were seeing a number of Indigenous patients being diagnosed with cancer at quite late stages, which is unusual in this day and age with the health-care system we have and the screening tools we have,” she said. “It turns out Indigenous people face a number of barriers to accessing care that other people may not encounter.”

Second place went to Nicole Shead for her entry on inter-professional team empathy among perioperative team clinicians. Shead, who graduated from the College of Nursing in June 2016 and now works at the Selkirk Regional Health Centre, discovered in her practicum experience that a communication gap exists between nurses, surgeons, health-care aides and other members of the perioperative team.

“This lack of team communication was leading to a loss of job satisfaction, burnout, anxiety and stress among team members,” she said. “Empathy is essential in health care and it has been a popular topic in nursing, but focusing on the relationship between the patient and the health-care provider. What about empathy between health-care providers and teams?”

April Gage placed third for her project on Towards Flourishing, a mental health promotion strategy offered through Manitoba’s Families First Home Visiting (FFHV) program. Through interviews with 10 parents and 10 home visitors, she found the strategy is positively promoting the mental health and well-being of families by giving them tangible ways of coping with life stressors.

“I learned that the social determinants of health, such as housing, finances and transportation, greatly impact the mental health of families, and that families benefit from having the support of a home visitor,” said Gage, who works as a public health nurse in the Interlake Eastern Regional Health Authority.

Dr. Christina West, assistant professor at the College of Nursing and chair of the event, called the students who took part in the competition the “future leaders of the nursing profession.”

She added that the event was a great way to honour its namesake, the late Dr. Helen Glass, former director of the University of Manitoba School of Nursing and a dedicated pioneer of the nursing profession.

“Dr. Helen Glass was a national and international nursing leader, who continues to inspire us today,” she said.