Bianca Beyer Award

I have worked in maternal-child nursing since graduating with my BN in 2004.  I have always been passionate about maternal-family health and especially interested in supporting breastfeeding families.  As a public health nurse, I often questioned recurring practice problems and healthcare trends.  When referring to the literature for answers to these practice questions, I found that these issues were not being explored by nursing researchers.  I decided that I needed to answer these questions from a nursing lens and enrolled into the Master of Nursing program at the University of Calgary.  I transferred directly into the doctoral program after the first year of my studies and plan on graduating with my PhD in 2019.  My doctoral research examines how a family integrated model of care in level II neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) impacts breastfeeding outcomes in moderate and late preterm infants.  This study will help to inform the future of NICU care provision in the province of Alberta.

I am also passionate about conducting research that is meaningful to the families that we serve.  In addition to my doctoral work, I am conducting a patient-oriented priority setting project examining research priorities for pregnant families and those parenting young children.  The outcomes from this study will inform my emerging program of research.