Dr. Dorothy Kergin Award

Being awarded the Dorothy Kergin Scholarship from the Canadian Nurses Foundation (CNF) provides substantial support for my studies and research at the University of British Columbia School of nursing, as well as demonstrates the CNF’s investment in the advancement of nursing scholarship in Canada. My doctoral work is focused on building a mobile health (mHealth) recordkeeping system to support the work of healthcare providers in the rural Punjab region in India. Accounting for a substantial percentage of maternal (20%) and under-five child (25%) deaths worldwide, India also has one of the most rapidly increasing cellular subscription rates worldwide, with over 900 million mobile phone subscribers in early 2014.

My PhD research aims to leverage the ubiquity of cellular phones in India by utilizing these as tools for mHealth in supporting maternal and infant health. Through my doctoral research, I aim to contribute to expanding the public’s understanding of the scope and adaptability of nursing research and its relevance to the increasingly digitized and globalized world. In addition, the application developed has potential to be implemented in other low-resource settings in Canada and elsewhere.