$2 million research grant awarded to McGill Nursing represents ‘powerful endorsement’ of the profession

By Christina Kozakiewicz, Ingram School of Nursing

The Ingram School of Nursing (ISoN) is pleased to announce a major partnership grant involving the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ­­­­­(SSHRC), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and additional partners’ joint investment of over $2 million in a groundbreaking research project entitled Transforming Nurses’ Work Environments Through a Strength-Based Leadership and Management Training Program, led by ISoN Professor Laurie Gottlieb, RN, PhD.

“Public and media narratives can sometimes focus on negatives in healthcare and for nurses, but this grant represents a powerful endorsement of the nursing profession,” says Gottlieb. “We know there is a serious problem, with nurses reporting dissatisfaction with their work environments to the degree that they want to leave the profession. The goal of our research is to create a paradigm shift from the current deficit-based management model to a strengths-based approach, to help create healthier working environments for nurses and healthcare workers, and to create better patient outcomes as a result.”

This research is centered on Strengths-Based Nursing/Care (SB-N/C), a philosophy and value driven-approach developed by Dr. Gottlieb. Strengths-Based Nursing/Care enhances, develops, and works with people’s existing and potential strengths to bring out the best in the person, and to contain, minimize, and/or circumvent what is not working. This grant will fund the development of a Strengths-Based-Leadership and Management (SB-L/M) Integrated Training Program for clinical leaders and managers.

The five-year investment is the first partnership grant in McGill’s history to be led by a Project Director based in the Faculty of Medicine, and counts nine co-investigators, six collaborators, and seven institutional partners from academic, not-for-profit, and hospital backgrounds.

“Nurses provide 90% of healthcare services in the world,” says Gottlieb. “Nurses need healthy work environments to be at their best in order to provide the highest quality person-centered care for individuals, families and communities.”

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