“We respond to over 2,000 requests for information and services a year, which, I think, shows we are a go-to place for research in Manitoba,” says Susan McClement [MN/93, PhD/01] associate dean, research at the College of Nursing.

The centre currently supports 28 researchers in the college, including a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, providing funding, consultation and other resources.

“Right now we have three researchers with prestigious chair positions and have had 14 chairs awarded to eight different individuals since 2000,” McClement says.

Since 2014 alone, MCNHR researchers have received 131 grants and career awards totaling more than $9.9 million in research funding.

The MCNHR was founded in 1985 as the Manitoba Nursing Research Institute by the late Dr. Helen Glass [Cert.Nurs.(T&S)/58] when she was director of what was then called the School of Nursing.

“We owe gratitude to Dr. Glass for her vision in understanding the need for infrastructure to support nursing research and scholarship,” McClement says.

As part of her associate dean portfolio, McClement assumed the role of director of the MCNHR in 2018, following the lead of seven previous leaders, starting with Dr. Lesley Degner [BN/69], now a distinguished professor emerita.

Senior research manager Diane Cepanec [BA/94, MA/99] has worked with most of those leaders since she started with the centre 20 years ago. “Each of them helped shape what the MCNHR is today and has been an amazing leader and mentor,” says Cepanec.

Hired as a research coordinator in 2000, Cepanec has seen the centre‘s growth first-hand. “We went from offering a single grant valued at $2,000 in 1998 to awarding a total of 12 grants worth more than $60,000 in 2019,” she says.

Dr. Annette Schultz, associate professor, has been a researcher with the College of Nursing for 15 years, with a focus on health services, policy and Indigenous health. She says receiving support from MCNHR staff like Cepanec allows her to keep her focus on writing, crafting ideas and building relationships.

“All my budgets have been done in collaboration with Diane. She is so seasoned at putting these things together,” Schultz says. “As I tell more junior staff, she has read almost every grant that has gone through the college. She sees what gets funded and want doesn’t. To me that’s invaluable.”

Dr. Donna Martin [BN/91, MN/97], associate dean of graduate programs, also praised the centre’s staff, including James Plohman [B.Sc.(Hons.)/97, M.Sc./00], a research coordinator who has been with the centre for 12 years.

“I remember early on submitting an application to the research ethics board and getting this long response with 24 items I’d need to address before it could be approved. I was beside myself,” Martin says. “I went to the centre and James’ positivity dissipated all of that angst in me.”

In 2015, Martin, who led the MCNHR in 2017-2018, conducted a study in partnership with Little Saskatchewan First Nation, documenting the impact that a flood in 2011 had on the community after half its residents were displaced from their homes. The study received $717,855 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

“The centre really helped with the grant application and providing feedback from earlier drafts, as well as with the dissemination of findings,” she says. “It was an honour to receive that funding, which affirmed that the community’s experience was worthwhile studying and supporting.”

In 2008, the research unit’s name was updated to MCNHR to reflect a growing interest in multidisciplinary health research. Maureen Heaman [BN/78, MN/87, PhD/01], director of the centre from 2006 to 2008, says the name change and refocusing of the centre were the result of a three-year process after a UM senate committee review in 2005.

“We revised the mission, vision and goals and decided to broaden our appeal to researchers and health professionals from disciplines outside of nursing,” she says.

With the updated focus, the centre began offering memberships for those outside the college to access grants and consultative services. Today there are 276 members from across the Rady Faculty colleges, Red River College and Brandon University, as well as professionals from Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and beyond.

“Our members come from across the province, North America, and even as far away as Chile,” says Cepanec.

The MCNHR’s core team also doubled from three to six people, and five part-time student research assistant staff have since been added.

The centre has also grown in terms of the programs it offers students. It currently offers support to graduate students through research grants, an annual poster competition as part the Helen Glass Research Symposium, and travel awards to enable students to share their research with larger audiences.

For undergraduates, the MCNHR has a Summer Research Internship Program, founded in 2010, which teams each student with a research mentor on a project that aligns with their interests.

Fourth-year nursing student Sandra Aboh.

In 2020, the program allowed first-time intern Sandra Aboh, a fourth-year bachelor of nursing student originally from Nigeria, a chance to work alongside Roberta Woodgate [BN/89, MN/93, PhD/01], Canada Research Chair in child and family engagement in health research and healthcare, on a project focused on culturally sensitive services for youth.

“Even though we couldn’t work face-to-face because of COVID, I felt very supported by Dr. Woodgate, who was accessible through videoconferencing apps, email and phone,” Aboh says.

In total, 16 student interns worked with 14 mentors in the program this year.

McClement notes that the MCNHR continues to evolve in its support of researchers.

“The future and ongoing development of the centre is really important, and I think there’s some real untapped potential for nursing to enhance industry partnerships and collaborations,” she says.

She points to a project by associate professor Michelle Lobchuk [BN/92, MN/95, PhD/01] to develop a smartphone app that focuses on empathic communication and self-care management as a recent example of this kind of partnership.

“There are lots of ways nursing researchers can engage with people in different sectors,” McClement says.

She also wants to create a climate that will see greater synergy between researchers and other faculty members. “Instructors have a role to play in identifying issues in classroom and clinical teaching that can provide the basis of researchable problems,” she says. “I think we have lots we can learn from each other.”

The study, led by College of Nursing professor Dr. Tom Hack, is a nine-year follow-up to his previous analysis into the performance of nursing researchers in Canadian peer-reviewed journals. Hack was joined in this effort by James Plohman, research coordinator at Manitoba Centre for Nursing and Health Research, College of Nursing student Ashley Bell and Dr. Bev Temple, associate dean of the  School of Health Sciences, Red Deer College.

“For the initial study, my mentor, Dr. Lesley Degner approached me with the idea. We thought this would be a good way to encourage academic excellence and recognize scholarly leadership,” Hack said. He noted that he and Degner, who is now retired, were both on the 2010 list.

“During the last decade, the number, variety, scope and depth of indices used for this purpose have grown, so we thought it was time to look at this again,” he said.

Dr. Roberta Woodgate

The study reviewed specific articles and the total career citations of each author in five different categories. Authors needed to have the rank of professor, associate professor or assistant professor. Forty-nine academic institutions were analyzed and, in total, 44 researchers from 17 academic institutions earned a spot on the five “top 25” lists.

“The names that appear represent 3.8 per cent of sample of all the nurse academics in Canada, and we are proud that we have four researchers among that group,” Hack said.

Hack, who is the director of the Psychosocial Oncology and Cancer Nursing Research group of the College of Nursing, was named on the lists, along with Dr. Roberta Woodgate, professor and Canada Research Chair in Child and Family Engagement in Health Research and Healthcare, Dr. Susan McClement, associate dean of research, and recently retired professor Dr. Maureen Heaman.

Dr. Susan McClement

Retired faculty are not in the scope of the project, but Heaman was still active with the U of M at the time the study was completed in August 2018.

Hack, McClement and Heaman were among the top 25 most cited Canadian nursing researchers, based on citations to all their published journal articles. Hack and Woodgate were among the top 25 for citations to work that they each first-authored.

Hack had three articles in the 25 most highly cited first-authored studies. His highest was The communication goals and needs of cancer patients: A review, with 237 citations. The study ranked 20^th overall. The most cited article was by Dr. Dawn Stacey of the University of Ottawa and had 727 citations.

Hack, Heaman, McClement and Woodgate were all named on the list of the top 25 researchers according to the h-index for all published journal articles. Woodgate, Hack and Heaman were also on the h-index list for those who first-authored articles. The h-index measures the overall impact of a researcher based on his or her total publications and how many times they’ve been cited.

Dr. Maureen Heaman

“It gives you the sense of whether the entirety of an individual’s work has been well-cited.” Hack said.

In terms of overall citations, the U of M ranked third behind the University of Toronto and University of Alberta, which Hack said is significant because those universities have much larger nursing faculties than the U of M.

Dr. Netha Dyck, dean of the College of Nursing, said she is proud to see how strongly the college performed in the study.

“This speaks to the high calibre of these stellar researchers and their exceptional knowledge translation through publication,” she said.

This is something Dr. Susan McClement and Cheryl Dika of the College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences recently learned by taking part in the Academic Health Sciences Leadership program, a course offered by the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation for mid-career professionals who are entering leadership roles in health care or health-related academics.

Both are fairly new to their leadership positions. McClement, who has been a faculty member since 1998, was appointed associate dean of research last year. Dika started her position as director of curriculum integrity and faculty development last year, following three years as director of the college’s nurse practitioner program.

McClement found the program to be helpful in learning leadership skills, with topics ranging from project management to health system sustainability and social responsibility.

“The course really helped me to think about and look at issues from a more macro-perspective,” she said. “It allowed me to switch my thinking and helped my growth in terms of thinking like a leader. We know things are complicated, but they’re often more complicated than you initially perceive.” 

Dika said one of the most valuable parts of the program was that it allowed her to reflect on her own experiences and abilities as a leader.

“We focused on areas of strength and opportunities for growth, keeping in mind that effective leaders are also reflective,” Dika said.

McClement and Dika were two of four nursing faculty in the program last year. Other participants included faculty members from other Rady Faculty colleges, and mid-level leaders from health and government backgrounds.

The course uses a small group discussion format featuring experts from a variety of backgrounds. Last year’s speakers included Dr. Brian Postl, dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, Lori Lamont, chief operating officer of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and Brock Wright, chief executive officer of Shared Health Manitoba.

“We had unprecedented access to top-drawer people, which we really appreciated,” she said. “I mean how many people get three hours of unfettered access to someone like Brian Postl?”

All students are required to complete a capstone project that is meaningful and relevant to their work as part of the curriculum.

McClement’s project sought to identify factors that contributed to the delays experienced by researchers awaiting ethical approval for their projects from the Education Nursing Research Ethics Board.

“The course helped me think about this problem using a systems-based approach, which in turn enabled the identification of a wider repertoire of potential strategies,” McClement said.

Dika’s project explored mentorship models and the challenges that occur when there are fewer mentors than mentees.

“The traditional one-on-one mentorship model wasn’t going to work,” she said. “The course allowed me to explore different models of mentorship and gave me access to experienced health professionals that I otherwise would not have had the opportunity to work with.”

The program, which runs one evening a week from September to February, is heading into its ninth year. Class sizes are usually under 20 and there have been a total of 141 participants to date.