¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ University and Université de Montréal pool expertise to create Montreal Inter-University Group for Nursing Research (MIGNR)
April 3, 2003 marks a milestone in the history of nursing research in the Province of Québec. The official announcement of the new Montreal Inter-university Group for Nursing Research (MIGNR) was made at a gathering of more than 60 personalities from the university, scientific, health care, government and private sector communities during a ceremony at the Delta Montreal Hotel. The new nursing research group, a first in Quebec, was created through a partnership between the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), the Newton Foundation, the ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS), and the ministère des Finances, de l'Économie et de la Recherche (MFER).
The preliminary plan provided by principal investigators Dr Céline Goulet, Université de Montréal, and Dr Celeste Johnston, ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ University, was approved last December, and the universities have one year to submit a definitive research project on nursing interventions and their impact on the health of the population. At the end of next year, subject to a favourable evaluation by a FRSQ peer review committee, the nursing research group will receive from its partners $2 million in financial support, over a 4-year period, which will undoubtedly draw the attention of additional financial backers.
In his speech to guests, Dr Michel A. Bureau, FRSQ President and Executive Director, acknowledged the generosity of Richard and Satoko Ingram, Newton Foundation, who made a matching grant equal to 50% of the total investment required to create the new research group.
Dr Bureau also congratulated Dr Christine Colin, Dean, Faculté des sciences infirmières, Université de Montréal, and Dr Susan E. French, Associate Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Director, School of Nursing, ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ University, on the quality of the preliminary plan. The new research group will join the ranks of other groups currently funded by the FRSQ. The FRSQ's funding programs are greatly appreciated by the research community.
In their presentation to guests, Drs. Christine Colin and Susan E. French stressed the need to provide the best possible health care to Quebecers. The best way to accomplish this, they say, is to pool both universities' expertise in such areas as evaluation of quality health care, care for patients with cognitive deficits, infant pain, health care promotion, and family health. The 22 professors and members of the new research group have set the following objectives:
- Develop knowledge concerning novel effective nursing interventions for diverse groups of clients in transition situations, for example, a birth or a death in the family; having to cope with a heart attack, a new diagnosis or the exacerbation of a chronic disease. These interventions occur in various delivery locations within the health care system - hospital ward, community centres, home etc.
- Consolidate expertise of nurse scientists and train more of them. Since its inception in 1993, 24 ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ and Université de Montréal students have graduated from the ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ University-Université de Montréal Joint Ph.D. program in Nursing. Members of the MIGNR are established researchers who have published extensively on a variety of issues in health care. They are well positioned to train a new generation of researchers in nursing.
- Develop a bank of validated nursing procedures, practices, interventions. Through rigorous methodologies, the interventions that will be studied can form a database that can be tested in various populations as well as form a validated base for nursing practice. This base will act as a resource to train future nurses to provide the best care.
- Promote collaboration of experts from other disciplines. Nurses need to continually broaden their sphere of knowledge to understand societal needs and to be able to provide quality care in a rapidly evolving world. While studies will be led by nurses, experts from other disciplines will enrich them.
- Develop strategies to facilitate transfer of knowledge. There is a need not only to develop studies in nursing interventions for clientele, but these need to be developed within the context of the health care delivery system in a manner that will maximize knowledge transfer.
- Become a world-renowned centre of nursing research. Given that both universities are established authorities in their respective areas of research, this objective is within grasp.