Dr. Ann C. Beckingham Award

I have been a nurse for over 20 years; with most of my career spent in emergency department (ED) and critical care settings in Canada and internationally. I am passionate about continuous learning in order to deliver high-quality patient-centered care.  While caring for patients is fundamental, I have learned whole systemic and evidence-based approaches are needed to meaningfully improve healthcare quality.

My clinical experience has been instrumental in guiding my Master of Nursing (MN) research, as well as my current doctoral research with the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. During my MN, I collaborated with ED stakeholders to improve care for older adults with hip fractures. I learned there is a knowledge gap in strategies to improve ED quality of care for older adults. To begin addressing this need, my doctoral research focuses on developing measures to monitor and evaluate delirium care quality older adults receive in the ED. My goal is to thoughtfully implement the developed set of quality measures across Canada. Results will provide an example of a process for developing quality measures that can be applied to other priority patient populations. Improving ED quality care through education and research is an area I feel strongly about, and I see myself building a career creating and implementing ED quality care metrics as a nursing professor and researcher. I am grateful to CNF for supporting my doctoral research and am honoured to be this year’s recipient of the Dr. Ann C Beckingham Award.