Research

The BC Cancer Research Challenge is an annual competition to give clinicians at BC Cancer the opportunity to learn how to design and implement a research project. The program bridges the gap between clinical practice and research by advancing knowledge of research methods and evidence-based practice. To date, the BC Cancer Research Challenge has provided training on the research process to 28 nurses.

In 2020/21, BCNU’s support of $5,000 helped BC Cancer fund a team of RNs that, despite the challenging pandemic context, actively participated in the training provided by the program and presented a very relevant research project. They are currently conducting a study that assesses the impact of a self-reporting tool for gynecologic patients receiving active systemic therapy with the goal of implementing earlier interventions and improve patient outcomes.

Learn more about the BC Cancer Research Challenge here.

In 2020/2021, BCNU provided in-kind support to the research project carried out by the Wavefront Centre for Communication Accessibility entitled Breaking Barriers: Empowering Primary Care Providers to be Instigators of Change in Hearing Health Care Practice. The project uses a community-based participatory action research methodology in order to address key systemic barriers preventing adults from seeking or receiving hearing health care in British Columbia.

The project has recently been awarded the Vancouver Foundation Investigate grant and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research matching funds award. Learn more about the Wavefront Centre Community Research Division here. 

In 2020/2021, BCNU reached out to members to participate in a project based out of Simon Fraser University titled Risk and Resilience in the Health Workforce: Understanding and supporting the experiences of women health workers during COVID-19. Researchers aim to better understand if, and how, gender considerations have been included in health system responses to COVID-19 and in initiatives implemented to support women health workers, including nurses.

The project has released an overview of the findings from research with nurses. Read more about the project and published findings here.

The PHC Practice-Based Research Challenge is an annual competition to give point-of-care PHC staff new to research the opportunity to learn about research and conduct their own clinical practice project. Teams work with a mentor(s) to develop a research proposal around their research question. Participants will learn basic research skills and compete with other teams for some funding to conduct a small-scale research project.

Past years have seen projects team made up of and/or led by nurses. Funding from various organizations are pooled and distributed to the research teams. The majority of team participants are nurses; the 2021 competition consists of 19 teams, 12 of which are led by RNs.

Learn more about the PHC Research Challenge here. 

BCNU collaborated with UBC on a psychological health and safety survey in the fall of 2019 that focused on the overall mental health of our members. A follow up survey was carried out in the summer of 2020 where members were asked to share their experience around anxiety, burnout, depression, and exposure to violence during COVID-19.

Read more about the survey and published findings here.

During the summer of 2021, BCNU reached out to members to participate in an International COVID-19 Nursing Workforce survey so that researchers could compare the Canadian nursing experience with that of nurses around the world. The survey was developed by the University of South Australia and adapted in collaboration with the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) for Canadian nurses.

The Canadian results, released by RNAO in May 2022, reinforce the findings described in BCNU's Future of Nursing report – that the extreme stress of working through the pandemic, immense workload and lack of support from employers and government are prompting up to 69 percent of nurses to leave the profession within five years. Read more here.