The 2024 Great Lakes Biennial Nursing Conference attracted over 100 attendees, showcased 40 health care presentations and posters, and featured Indigenous Research Chair and guest speaker, Dr. Holly Graham.
Over 100 guests attended the Great Lakes Biennial Nursing Conference, held on Nov. 23 at University of Windsor’s Vanier Hall.
Keynote speaker Holly Graham highlighted the impact of racism on the health outcomes of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Peoples, and provided a practical approach to addressing racism in the health care setting utilizing her “CPR RACISM toolkit.”
Stacey Nahdee, First Nations Cultural Practitioner, began the conference with a traditional ceremonial opening to welcome an audience comprised of students, alumni, former faculty members, researchers, clinicians, health-care associations, and members of other universities and colleges.
Dr. Graham’s knowledge and experience provided a glimpse of the realities of health care challenges affecting Indigenous peoples. She stressed the importance of acting with kindness and with an anti-racism approach. Graham offered pragmatic solutions, engaged in a captivating Q-and-A session, and shared tips on addressing racism in the workplace.
Dean of the Faculty of Nursing, Debbie Sheppard-LeMoine, praised Graham’s wisdom and research strategies and emphasized how it will benefit UWindsor’s path moving forward relative to Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations for the faculty’s nursing programs.
A soothing break in the conference was provided by students from the massage and hydrotherapy program from the Canadian College of Health Science & Technology. Suffice it to say, the free massage sessions were a hit.
Throughout the event, over 40 oral presentations and research posters spread over multiple rooms covered such topics as:
- End-of-life care through an Indigenous education simulation scenario
- Cultural humility in nurses caring for transgender and gender-diverse patients
- Community-based eating disorder care
- Service delivery patterns in day treatment programs for adolescents with depression
- Mental health impacts in nursing
- Innovation in communication techniques
- Artificial intelligence and patient safety in cardiovascular care
- Internationally educated nurses transition and integration into the Canadian workforce
- Registered nurse prescribing in Ontario
“One presentation that stood out for me was 'Influencing Outcomes through an Evidence-Based Nurse-Driven Telemetry Discontinuation Protocol'," says BScN student Sedat Karabulut. "It showcased a real-world example of integrating technology into nursing practice and how healthcare and nursing are rapidly evolving through those tech advancements."
The conference’s People’s Choice Awards winning posters for the Best Undergraduate Student Poster belonged to "Mental Health Impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences: Neglect and Maltreatment in Canadians" by Dami Babs-Olorunfemi, Maggie Zhu, and Chisom Jennifer Obiora, while the Best Graduate Student Presentation was awarded to "Social Support of Pregnant Women During COVID-19 Restrictions" by Natalie Sykora.
Based on the success of the event, conference chair and UWindsor associate professor of nursing, Jody Ralph, is looking forward to the next event in two years.