Canadian Centre for Advanced Practice Nursing Research (CCAPNR)

Meet the Team

Denise Bryant-Lukosius

Associate Professor, School of Nursing, McMaster University
Associate Member, Department of Oncology, McMaster University
Co-Director, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)
Director, Canadian Centre for Excellence in Oncology Advanced Practice Nursing (OAPN)

Denise Bryant-Lukosius, RN, CON(C), BScN, MScN, PhD is an associate professor in the School of Nursing and the Department of Oncology and is the co-Director for The Canadian Centre for Advanced Practice Nursing Research (CCAPNR) at McMaster University. She holds a cross appointment with the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre as a Clinician Scientist and Director of the Canadian Centre of Excellence in Oncology Advanced Practice Nursing (OAPN) which provides a unique a program of research, education, mentorship and knowledge translation activities to support the development of generalist, specialized and advanced nursing roles in cancer control.

From 1993 to 1999, Denise was the founding Chair of the Adult Oncology Nursing Program at McMaster which provided an innovative model for degree-linked, post-basic specialty education in Canada. Between 2007 and 2013, Denise has led the development, evaluation and expansion of the Ontario Oncology Nursing e-Mentorship Program – a provincial program funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the de Souza Institute to promote the career and professional development of specialized and advanced oncology nurses. Nationally, she has received two awards of recognition for excellence in education and research from the Canadian Association of Nurses in Oncology. In addition to her education and research roles, Denise has national certification in oncology nursing and over 25 years of experience as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Hematology/Oncology and urological cancers.

As a health services researcher, Denise has expertise in qualitative, quantitative, mixed method and participatory action research. She developed the PEPPA Framework which is recognized internationally as a best practice approach for the effective development, implementation and evaluation of advanced practice nursing and other health provider roles. She is involved in numerous knowledge translation, research, policy and consultation activities designed to improve access and quality of care and health outcomes for patients with a chronic health conditions though optimal utilization of specialized and advanced nursing roles.

Ruth Martin-Misener

Professor, School of Nursing, Dalhousie University
Affiliate Faculty Member, School of Nursing, McMaster University
Co-Director, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)
Chair, Nurse Practitioner Committee, College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia

Ruth Martin-Misener, DOPN, BScN, MN, PhD has a career focused on primary health care. After practicing in the Canadian North she was invited to return to Dalhousie School of Nursing to teach in the Outpost Nursing Program from which she received her diploma in 1986. The Dalhousie Outpost Nursing Program (DOPN) was essentially Canada’s first nurse practitioner (NP) program and in the late 1990s Martin-Misener played a key role in transitioning the DOPN to a Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner (NP) Program. Dr. Martin-Misener has been a key player in the development and implementation of the NP role in Nova Scotia and nationally. She has worked closely with the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia to develop NP regulatory policies and processes and was a central figure in the Strengthening Primary Care initiative in Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Nurse Practitioner Initiative.

After completing her PhD at the University of Calgary in 2006, Martin-Misener completed a strategic fellowship in TUTOR-PHC, a CIHR-funded training initiative that aims to build a critical mass of researchers through student and faculty development and increase interdisciplinary focus in primary health care research. In 2009 she was invited to join the TUTOR-PHC team as a co-investigator and mentor. Dr. Martin-Misener’s research has focused on the implementation and evaluation of multi-disciplinary innovative models of care in primary and long-term care. For example, the rural primary health care delivered collaboratively by NPs, paramedics and family physicians on Long and Briar Islands.

Dr. Martin-Misener was profoundly influenced and inspired by Dr. Alba DiCenso’s research mentorship offered through her Advanced Practice Nursing Chair at McMaster University. When the Chair program ended, Martin-Misener played a key role in the evolution to the Canadian Center for Advanced Practice Nursing Research for which she now is co-Director. Over the past decade this group has been highly productive completing several influential studies including a CHSRF-commissioned Decision Support Synthesis on Clinical Nurse Specialists and Nurse Practitioners in Canada leading to a peer-reviewed special issue of Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership consisting of 10 papers and a systematic review of the cost effectiveness of advanced practice nurse roles. In recognition of her many contributions, she received a Centennial Award of Distinction from the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia in 2009.

Dr. Martin-Misener’s health services research uses mixed methods to examine optimal integration of nurse practitioner and other roles in innovative team-based models of care that enable improved accessibility to quality healthcare in community-based primary and long-term care settings. She teaches and supervises students in the Master’s and PhD programs.

Nancy Carter

Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, McMaster University
Member, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)

Nancy Carter, RN, PhD is an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and teaches in the undergraduate, graduate and nurse practitioner programs. She is a researcher in the Canadian Centre for Advanced Practice Nursing Research (CCAPNR). Nancy's research interests include knowledge translation, focusing on the dissemination and uptake of evidence on Clinical Nurse Specialists and Nurse Practitioners by administrators and decision makers, as well as the development of new nursing roles in oncology and community settings. Dr. Carter has many years of experience working with stakeholders on research projects (integrated KT), and also end-of-grant KT activities. Additionally she has done some pilot work related to KT Science, focussing on knowledge needs and dissemination preferences of nursing leaders about Advanced Practice Nursing. Dr. Carter’s research expertise is in APN, Knowledge Translation and Exchange, Nursing Leadership, and qualitative methods.

Faith Donald

Associate Professor, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Ryerson University
Affiliate Faculty Member, School of Nursing, McMaster University
Member, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)

Faith Donald, NP-PHC, Ph.D also holds an Ontario Training Centre Graduate Diploma in Health Services and Policy Research and completed a two-year Canadian Health Services Research Foundation Postdoctoral Award.

An Associate Professor in the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, she is a primary health care nurse practitioner with a background in acute, long-term, and primary health care. Faith has extensive experience with curriculum design and evaluation, as well as teaching nurse practitioners at the post-diploma, post-baccalaureate, graduate, and post-masters levels.

Faith is an Affiliate Faculty member with the Canadian Centre for Advanced Practice Nursing Research. Her research interests primarily focus on advanced practice nursing (nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists) in primary and long-term care and nurse practitioner education. Faith continues her clinical practice as a primary health care nurse practitioner on a locum/casual basis. Community service includes the Board of Directors of Health Quality Ontario and Faith recently completed two terms on the Board for Central West Specialized Developmental Services and chaired the Quality Improvement Committee.

Patti Harbman

Nurse Scientist, Trillium Health Partners
Postdoctoral Fellow, Health Interventions Research Centre, Ryerson University
Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Nursing, McMaster University
Member, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)

Patti Harbman, NP-PHC, MN, PhD completed her PhD with the thesis “The development and testing of a nurse practitioner secondary prevention intervention for patients following acute myocardial infarction”. Prior to PhD work Patti has worked primarily in NP roles working with post myocardial infarction and heart failure patients in acute care and ambulatory care settings. She also has experience working in emergency and walk-in clinic settings.

Patti’s postdoctoral fellowship work with the Health Interventions Research Centre is focused primarily on a program of research funded by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care examining the nurse practitioner role in acute care and long-term care settings across the province. The overall purpose of this program of research is to determine the direct and indirect impact of NP practices on patent, safety and system outcomes in inpatient and outpatient settings.

The Nurse Scientist role at Trillium Health Partners is an academic-practice linkage with McMaster University and CCAPNR faculty to deliver an APN graduate research course to educate point of care NPs in-house in the skills required to prepare a research proposal and conduct a research or quality improvement project to be implemented on their respective units at course completion. The overall aim for this innovative approach is to improve patient care by strengthening the capacity of NPs to integrate research and leadership activities into their practices.

Kelley Kilpatrick

Researcher, Centre de recherche de l’Hôpital Maisonneuve Rosemont
Assistant Professor, Faculté des sciences infirmières, Université de Montréal
Affiliate Faculty Member, School of Nursing, McMaster University
Member, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)

Kelley Kilpatrick, RN., PhD is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Nursing at the Université de Montréal, and a researcher with the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Center and the Canadian Centre for Advanced Practice Nursing Research at McMaster University. Kelley received a Junior researcher award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé (2013-2017). She completed a PhD in Nursing at McGill University (2010) and a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University (2011). Her research interests include nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist roles, boundary work activities, perceptions of team effectiveness, acute and primary care, and the effects of healthcare service delivery on patients and families. Kelley has used different approaches including mixed methods, case study, surveys, systematic reviews, and qualitative description to answer her research questions.

Diana Sherifali

Associate Professor, School of Nursing, McMaster University
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Diabetes Care and Research Program, Hamilton Health Sciences
Member, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)

Diana Sherifali, RN, CNS, CDE, PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, McMaster University and an Affiliate Faculty member with the Canadian Centre for Advanced Practice Nursing Research. Diana’s research interests build on her three-year Heart and Stroke Post-Doctoral Fellowship, and include the evaluation of strategies to facilitate diabetes self-management and its consequences at the patient, provider and community level. Diana is also interested in research methodologies, specifically quantitative research methods and mixed methodology. She has been funded by the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA), Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Institute for Health Research. Diana has also received early career research funding from Hamilton Health Sciences.

Diana has several publications in the area of diabetes management and has been an invited speaker at such conferences as the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE), the Foundation for European Nurses in Diabetes (FEND), and the International Diabetes Federation.Diana has extensive clinical experience as a diabetes educator and is also a clinical nurse specialist at Hamilton Health Sciences’ Diabetes Care and Research Program.

Joan Tranmer

Professor, School of Nursing, Queen’s University
Member, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)

Dr. Joan Tranmer, RN, BScN, MSc, PhD., is a career scientist whose work with interdisciplinary teams in the conduct of research primarily focused on systematic examination and gender-based analyses of patient, caregiver, and system outcomes of care for persons living with chronic cardiovascular and cancer conditions; and on the development and testing of nurse led delivery systems to enhance quality of care. A secondary research focus is on the understanding of factors that contribute to quality work environments for healthcare workers and the development of policy and strategies to improve healthcare work environments, with a particular focus on female workers and cardiovascular health. Dr. Tranmer holds research grant funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and other peer reviewed funding bodies.

As a Professor at Queen’s University, Dr. Tranmer is involved predominantly in graduate teaching at the Masters and PhD levels in quantitative research design, methods and analysis. Courses are designed to provide the graduate student with the knowledge and skills to address research questions using a rigourous quantitative approach. Students have the opportunity to learn and apply using secondary data sources, various research approaches and analyses using SPSS. In all courses, students actively engage in activities; independent and critically thinking is fostered. Dr. Tranmer supervises graduate students in Nursing and Department of Public Health Sciences. Student's research foci are complementary to her areas of research expertise and focus, allowing for many research and scholarship opportunities.

Dr. Tranmer’s research expertise is in process and outcome measurement and evaluation, clinical etiological studies (relevant to Nursing), clinical and pragmatic trials, and analysis of secondary administrative data (i.e, ICES).

Ruta Valaitis

Associate Professor, School of Nursing, McMaster University
Dorothy C. Hall Chair in Primary Health Care Nursing
Member, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)

Dr. Ruta Valaitis has a BScN and BA (Psychology) from the University of Windsor, a Master's in Health Care Practice from McMaster University, and a PhD from the University of Toronto. In 2007, she was awarded the Dorothy C. Hall endowed Chair in Primary Health Care Nursing and is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at McMaster University. She held a joint appointment at the City of Hamilton, Public Health Research, Education, and Development Program (PHRED; 1998-2007). Her research contributions straddle a variety of content areas including health services and policy research, interprofessional and inter-organizational collaboration, implementation science, community health nursing (primary care and public health), community-based primary care, and e-health specifically related to patricipatory design and usability science.

As the program lead, she has recently completed a 4 1/2 year program of research exploring collaborations between public health and primary care involving a team from ON, NS and BC, and is currently leading the development of an online toolkit for building successful collaboration based on this work. She is also currently a Co-PI on a 5 year CIHR Emerging Team Grant exploring the implementation and impact of public health policy renewal in BC and ON which explores partnerships, equity and health human resources as cross cutting themes. Ruta has expertise in qualitative research, in particular with case studies, and experience with population surveys, Q-methodology and situational analysis. She also has experince in managing large interprovincial, inter-disciplinary teams and integrated knowledge exchange processes.

Rose Gillespie

Administrative Assistant, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR), School of Nursing, McMaster University

Sarah Rietkoetter

Research Coordinator, The Canadian Centre of Excellence in Oncology Advanced Practice Nursing (OAPN), School of Nursing, McMaster University

Katharine Snider McNair

Coordinator, The Canadian Centre of Excellence in Oncology Advanced Practice Nursing (OAPN), School of Nursing, McMaster University

Jennifer Rayner

Postdoctoral Fellow, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR), Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Ryerson University

Linda Brousseau

Research Mentee, Canadian Centre for APN Research (CCAPNR)