Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Prof looks to connect more nurses to research

UNBC nursing professor Davina Banner-Lukaris wants to make it easier for front line nurses to get involved in medical research projects. "Nurses haven't traditionally been as engaged in research as other healthcare professionals," she said.
GP201310311139990AR.jpg

UNBC nursing professor Davina Banner-Lukaris wants to make it easier for front line nurses to get involved in medical research projects.

"Nurses haven't traditionally been as engaged in research as other healthcare professionals," she said. "A lot of that is because there is not as much opportunity in our day-to-day job to get involved in research, but I think that's definitely changing."

Medical research is most often associated with physicians, but Banner-Lukaris said the connection nurses have to the daily operations of a healthcare practice can add value to any project.

"They can bring that real-world perspective and what's of concern to the patient and what's of concern to the community - it's a really important perspective to have in research," she said. "As a researcher myself and as a nurse myself it really helps me to know the priorities in clinical practice."

While going about their regular duties, often nurses will come across clinical situations that require further study and Banner-Lukaris wants to help equip them with the skills to be able to conduct those research projects.

Banner-Lukaris was recently awarded the cardiovascular research nursing excellence award from the Canadian Council of Cardiovascular Nurses in part because of the webinars she's conducted with nurses across the region about the research possibilities that exist for nurses who are engaged in practice.

In the webinars, Banner-Lukaris teaches nurses the basics about how to get involved in medical research, from how to review a journal article, to tips for preparing literature reviews to how to build connections with research institutes.

Nursing students at UNBC are another resource local nurses can use to help in their research goals. Last year, students focused their research on HIV and AIDS.

"We ask [nurses and managers] what are some of the problems that you've seen or what are some of the things that are presenting challenges and then we ask our students to do some of that research," Banner-Lukaris said. "The students can develop research posters that we can provide back to the clinical areas."

Banner-Lukaris works closely with Northern Health in her own research endeavors since joining UNBC's faculty in 2007. One of her projects focused on the roles nurses play in primary care in northern B.C.

"Some of the projects I've been able to work with have come directly from Northern Health, where they have identified a particular area of interest and we've been able to work through a partnership to either do some direct research or maybe it's about looking at what's the best evidence to support that particular area of practice," she said.

Banner-Lukaris comes by her nursing research advocacy honestly. She's working with professionals across the northern regions of B.C., Alberta and Ontario to find out best practices when it comes to treatment and care for atrial fibrillation, a serious type of irregular heartbeat which can lead to strokes.

She first became interested in cardiovascular care due to her family history with the disease and she worked in a cardiac unit for 10 years in the United Kingdom prior to coming to Canada.

"One of things that we don't really know much about [atrial fibrillation] is what it's like to live with that condition and also about some of the decision making," she said. "We have a lot of work that's already been done around clinical treatments and medicine, but we don't really know that kind of [personal] experience level."