My name is Hannah Reid, and I am currently working as a Research Assistant in the Strengthening Transitions in Care (STIC) Lab at IWK Health.

This past summer, I completed the Quality Patient Safety (QPS) Research Undergraduate Studentship. While I supported multiple scoping and systematic review projects, the focus of my studentship was a systematic review investigating Audit and Feedback (A&F) as a professional tool to enhance the quality of patient care. Audit and feedback is the process of checking how things are being done by healthcare providers and giving feedback to help improve things. Through this experience, I have gained an appreciation for the importance of effective knowledge translation between health promotion and clinical professions and am excited to see how the A&F systematic review will impact professional practice at IWK Health.

Overall, my experience with the STIC Lab has improved my ability to critically analyze, contextually understand, and communicate the meaning of literature. More importantly, it has significantly shaped my perspective of a strong team. While I had limited research experience at the start of my studentship, Dr. Curran and the research staff sought and valued my opinions and ideas regarding the projects I supported. Additionally, they created opportunities to include myself and other students in professional development  – showcasing the STIC Lab’s commitment to valuing and supporting team members of all capacities.

I am extremely grateful for the knowledge and experience I have gained since the start of my studentship. More so, working with the STIC Lab has cultivated my passion for research for which I am excited to continue exploring.

From May 13 to 15, I attended the World Conference on Health Promotion at the ADNEC Center in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The focus of the conference was Settings for Planetary Health and Well-being. This was a historic event for two reasons; it was the first time the conference was hosted in the Middle East, the “cradle of civilization,” and second, the first IUHPE conference held in person following the COVID-19 pandemic. I presented two papers from my doctoral studies, exploring health promotion within healthcare. I was able to attend this conference thanks to the support from my supervisors (Dr. Christine Cassidy and Dr. Janet Curran) and funding through the CIHR Health Systems Impact Fellowship (Postdoctoral).
 
Over the course of the conference, I interacted with researchers, practitioners and members from non-governmental agencies, all working towards a similar goal: to improve the social and environmental conditions where people live, work and play. The conference themes included systems-level collaborations, digital health transformation and equity, inclusion and Indigenous knowledges. This conference was a meeting place for sharing ideas, science and solutions. The conference was also a place for action, ending with the writing of the Abu Dhabi Legacy Statement of the IUHPE. Past declarations have been attributed to setting the future direction of health promotion research.
 
I attended an exceptional workshop about the challenges of health promotion research. Health promotion was the focus of my doctoral studies, and it confirmed my reflections and findings. Health promotion research is often viewed as secondary to other health systems research, even though it is essential for reorienting health services and, thus, reducing healthcare costs, and a component of the Quintuple aim (improving population health). Therefore, health promotion researchers must be creative and find opportunities to advocate for improving the social and structural determinants of health. Be a “Trojan horse” for health promotion and find ways to influence the system, even if they aren’t obvious.
 
As a follow-up, I had the privilege of attending a mentor moment – a session with a leading health promotion scholar, who also happened to be one of the presenters of the workshop. It was an invigorating and uplifting session filled with optimism, realism, and laughs. We talked about the challenges of health promotion research (e.g., studying interventions in complex environments), how fun it is to be a researcher (getting paid to learn) and the importance of relying on the networks of people around you to keep learning. I look forward to applying this learning to my research as a Postdoctoral Fellow and developing my program of research to incorporate these lessons. 

Laura Kennedy, Postdoctoral Fellow 

From April 13-15, STIC lab members Sarah Keeping (PhD in Nursing Student) and Grace MacIntyre (Research Assistant) attended the Children’s Healthcare Canada (CHC) conference in Ottawa.  

This conference is hosted annually to bring together health leaders and executives, frontline practitioners, patient and family partners, researchers, and policy makers. Children’s Healthcare Canada is a national association that supports the implementation of high-quality care, unites strategic partners, and advocates to improve child and youth health and health systems. This year’s conference focused on right-sizing health systems. Right-sizing is about ensuring health systems are designed to meet the needs of children, youth, and families. A right-sized health system provides accessible, equitable, and connected health services.  

Sarah presented a poster for a scoping review she is leading on " The structure and implementation of school-based nursing programs for children with special health care needs (CSHCN)”. Grace presented a poster on the “IWK’s Transition to Adult Care Framework: Integrating a coordinated, consistent structure into transition practice”, on behalf of the IWK Transition of Care Committee.  

Work was presented by healthcare leaders and researchers from across Canada. The panels and concurrent sessions touched on timely topics such as precision medicine, artificial intelligence, political determinants of health, and learning health systems. The keynote speaker, Dr. Tina Cheng, discussed strategies to improve lifelong health for children, emphasizing the need for a patient, family and public health-oriented model of pediatric care.  

Some of the key takeaways and taglines of the conference included: 

• Today’s systems were designed for yesterday’s kids.  

• Investing in the health of children is investing in our collective future. 

• We need to move beyond the health system to help children thrive. This involves building relationships with rural communities, Indigenous communities, schools, community organizations, and government and private sectors.  

• To support a successful learning health system approach, research questions should stem from and be tailored to local context, whether through internal data or experiential knowledge.  

• More and more health systems are leveraging data such as patient reported outcome measures and social determinants of health to enhance the quality-of-care delivery and health equity. We have to ensure this data is used for solutions, not profiling. Contextualizing and making meaning of the data must be a collaborative process between clinicians and patients and families.   ​​

​

This was a great opportunity for Sarah and Grace to make connections and learn about the innovative work happening for youth and children’s health in Canada!
​

On November 4-5, I attended the National Cohort Training Program (NCTP), designed for CIHR Health System Impact Fellows in PhD programs, postdoctoral training and early career researchers. The NCTP is a workshop-style training that equips students and fellows with skills to become embedded scientists within health organizations (e.g., hospitals, charities, public health). Over the two days, we heard from an Indigenous elder, a Senator, and academic leaders about engaging, mobilizing and building partnerships.
​
These concepts aren’t unfamiliar to me. In my experience, these words mean different things to different people. This was one of the key takeaways from the two-day workshop. These words may mean different things, but at the end of the day, engagement is about meeting people where they are. If we include communities in research in integral and meaningful ways, we must engage early and often in helpful ways for those communities. Maybe it’s grabbing coffee, sharing a meal or walking in nature. We need to sit and be with the community to find this out.
 
I remember the first time I got invited to return to a community. I was working as a Health Promoter and gave a community presentation about substance use in Nova Scotia earlier that day. I wasn’t sure about how it came across. One of my strategies was to talk less and listen more. I even shortened my presentation and allowed more time for discussion. To my surprise, the community said they were so grateful they wanted me to come back and join them for the second day of their gathering. That is the goal! Getting invited back.
 
​My most significant learning from the NCTP was to stay curious and listen intently before acting. I look forward to using what I have learned at the IWK and onwards. 

​- Laura Kennedy, Postdoctoral Fellow

Hello! My name is Laura Kennedy, and I am thrilled to join the exceptional group of students, trainees, and researchers at the STIC Lab. I am joining the lab as a CIHR Health Systems Impact Post Doctoral Fellow supervised by Dr. Cassidy and Dr. Curran. Using a socio-ecological lens, I conduct policy research investigating health promotion within healthcare and its impact on employees, environments and policies. As an embedded scientist at the IWK, I will collaborate with the Women’s Health Program to apply a health equity lens to the commonly used and cited Knowledge-to-Action Framework. This research has the potential to significantly bridge the gap between what we know (knowledge) and what we do (practice), thereby improving health systems to be spaces that augment health for everyone. 
 
In 2024, I completed my Doctor of Philosophy from Dalhousie University (Faculty of Health), supervised by Dr. Catherine Mah – Canada Research Chair of Health Promoting Populations. My dissertation studied the everyday actions of managers and point-of-sale staff to determine how they conduct quality improvement for health promotion in retail food environments in light of an organizational Healthy Eating Policy. One of the main findings of this research was that healthcare staff acted as street-level bureaucrats and engaged in small tests of change (PDSA cycles) to prove the value of health promotion interventions within retail services. These PDSA cycles lead to empowerment and trust between management, leadership, and frontline staff. This research has informed my research program of studying health promotion within hospitals.
 
I am a Registered Nurse and have spent the last seven years in the health promotion field, where I have worked with communities to create supportive environments where Nova Scotians live, work and play. One of my favourite work projects I led was a QI health promotion cross-sectional study to strengthen our efforts to address advertising (e.g. fast food) to children in municipal locations, such as bus stops near schools. It is well-founded that child and youth exposure to unhealthy advertising influences behaviour, attitudes, and perceptions. However, the frequency and intensity of advertising children are exposed to on their way to and from school are unknown due to a lack of routine monitoring of community environments. I established international collaborations with researchers from Australia who had completed a similar research project and tailored their data collection techniques to the Canadian landscape. The findings challenged our hypothesis (e.g. more ads for gambling than alcohol) and refined our health promotion messages for internal and external stakeholders, thus improving health promotion practice. This work was published in Dalhousie’s student-led Healthy Populations Journal.
 
I am passionate about conducting research that involves collaborating between academics and researchers.  In 2021, I had the opportunity to coordinate the (virtual) Peas in a Pod Practice Exchange with Canadian and Australian researchers and practitioners. This event was a platform to explore how we can increase research capacity within retail food environments research. It included a fireside chat with a Nova Scotia Health dietitian and a public health nutritionist working in an Indigenous Australian store co-op. The main finding of this event was that practitioners were eager to engage in research but faced challenges due to time and resource constraints. ​Both researchers and practitioners agreed that partnerships must be built before starting a research project. However, they also critiqued grants for not recognizing the time and commitment required to make these partnerships. This experience reinforced my belief in the power of collaboration and the importance of mutual learning partnerships in research. 
 
I live in Halifax, NS. On the weekends, you can find me biking along the Rails-to-Trails or hiking in Blue Mountain with my Golden Retriever, Molly. I love trying new coffee shops. My new favourite spot is Café Good Luck in downtown Dartmouth. When I’m not eating baked goods from cafes, I make my own. I am an avid baker and have been baking sourdough bread since the pandemic. Please reach out if you would like to talk about postdoc life, the Health Systems Impact Fellowship or PhD studies. You can reach me at laura.kennedy@dal.ca.

Hi! I’m Simonne Collins, a Postdoctoral researcher new to the Strengthening Transitions in Care (STIC) Lab and Canada. I recently moved to Halifax from Melbourne, Australia with my husband to take on a Postdoctoral Fellowship.

​So far, we have explored much of the Halifax peninsula, enjoyed a few hikes and went on our first camping trip. We are very much looking forward to exploring Nova Scotia and doing all of the activities!
​
But I am here to work too! During my Postdoc I will be based within the STIC Lab and working with the CHILD-BRIGHT Network’s Implementation Science Research Program under the mentorship of Dr. Janet Curran.

My key projects will include: 1) mapping the implementation science methodologies used across 12 CHILD-BRIGHT projects that focus on implementing and scaling up different interventions for children with developmental brain-based disabilities; and 2) evaluating the conditions that allow early career researchers in implementation science to flourish and build their capacity.

My research in Australia with children born very preterm (born before 32 weeks of gestation) and children who have experienced an acquired brain injury was grounded in the discipline of neuropsychology. This provides a strong foundation for me to undertake my new role in Canada. My skillset is also complimentary to the multidisciplinary STIC Lab, further strengthening lab capacity to undertake large, multidisciplinary projects.

I would be happy to connect with others contemplating making an international move to pursue their education and research career goals. It’s been a very rewarding experience even in the short time I’ve been here! I am also happy to connect to chat more about my research! Please reach out: simonne.collins@dal.ca

Erin stated - “It’s always great to have an opportunity to get feedback on our work and to see all the fantastic research that's going on across health disciplines. Crossroads offers an incredible opportunity for students to network and learn in an inclusive environment”. Great job to our presenters! ​

​



Quality patient-caregiver-provider communication can be challenging in a busy, high-stress environment like the emergency department (ED). When patients and caregivers leave the ED without fully understanding what happened during their visit or the information that was given to them, it can impact their ability to manage care at home and creates potential for return ED visits. That's why Dr. Janet Curran and Dr. Christine Cassidy are co-leading a national team to develop the Emergency Department Patient-Activated Transition from Care to Home (ED-PATCH) tool, which aims to help with these challenges.

Co-designed with patients, caregivers and ED healthcare providers, ED-PATCH is a discharge communication tool that is activated and managed by patients or their caregivers to record important information shared during the ED visit. Patients receive ED-PATCH in the waiting room or immediately upon placement in an assessment room and use it to track important information throughout their visit. Information such as diagnosis given, details about treatments, tests, and procedures received, medications, and treatment plans. Before leaving, the patient or caregiver shares the summary of their notes with an ED healthcare provider who confirms or clarifies information captured. The summary is then available to be printed in the ED or emailed to the patient or caregiver for their own records.

The ED-PATCH team has been awarded funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to run a trial of the tool over the next five years. The goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of ED-PATCH using an interrupted time series and to better understand the context for implementation of ED-PATCH in Canadian emergency practice settings. We will use a concurrent embedded mixed methods hybrid type 1 design with an integrated knowledge translation approach where we will work with patient and public partners, healthcare providers, and health system administrators.
​
Want to learn more about the ED-PATCH project? Contact the Program Manager, Leah Boulos leah.boulos@dal.ca for more information.

I'm Rebekah Bercovici, and I am currently working as a research administrative assistant in the Strengthening Transitions in Care (STIC) Lab at IWK Health.

I recently graduated from St. Francis Xavier University, with a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Health. Initially, my pursuit of a health-oriented career seemed strictly biomedical in nature. However, over the course of my four-year studies, I came to understand that healthcare delivery encompasses much more. It requires consideration of the multifaceted non-medical factors collectively referred to as the social determinants of health.

My journey at the STIC Lab began as a Quality and Patient Safety Research Chair Summer student in 2023. It was during this studentship that I gained a firsthand appreciation of the often-overlooked underpinnings of healthcare delivery and health system improvement. In these past few months, my primary focus has been a scoping review on interventions used to evaluate safety culture in the operating room. Safety culture, a seemingly simple concept, has proven to be intricate and pivotal in caring for patients. My involvement in this quality improvement and patient safety project has broadened my perspective on healthcare research, and highlighted the profound impact research has on enhancing the safety and quality of care.

Much like the interdisciplinary nature of my undergraduate degree, the collaboration within the lab involves an integration of individuals with diverse academic backgrounds, experiences, and expertise. It vividly exemplifies how bringing together various disciplines within a healthcare team fosters a dynamic exchange of knowledge, leading to improvements in patient outcomes, healthcare innovations, and delivery.

As I reflect on my summer studentship in the STIC Lab, I am struck by the invaluable learning experience it has provided. Throughout this period, I gained essential research skills, such as article screening and data extraction, while also learning essential work skills including scheduling meetings, meeting notes/updates, sending motivational emails, and fostering effective collaboration.

Undoubtedly, there were moments when I felt like I was stepping outside my comfort zone. Many concepts and tasks were unfamiliar to me and even presenting my work to the team during our monthly lab meeting was intimidating. However, it's in such moments that the unwavering support and guidance from everyone in the lab shone the brightest. Their encouragement and assistance not only helped me grow but also boosted my confidence in my abilities. Working on this review has not only expanded my knowledge but has also introduced me to an array of incredibly talented individuals.

I am immensely honored to have been a summer student in the STIC lab. I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Janet Curran, who has been my guiding mentor throughout this journey. Observing her unwavering passion and dedication to her work has been truly inspiring, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn from her. I am so excited to continue my research journey this coming year and collaborate with such a talented and dedicated group of individuals!