Research chair advances Indigenous wellness in nursing

Dr. Lisa Bourque Bearskin, a Cree/Metis member of Beaver Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6 territory, is one of six researchers awarded an Indigenous Research Chair in Nursing from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Bourque Bearskin’s research focuses on advancing Indigenous health nursing that empowers nurses to advocate for patient access to traditional wellness practices within culturally safe and secure health-care environments. She has spent 30 years as a registered nurse advocating for improved health-care service delivery to Indigenous populations.

This research is supported by more than $1.52 million over five years. Along with the CIHR, funding support also comes from the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), the Canadian Nursing Foundation (CNF) and Thompson Rivers University where Bourque Bearskin is a researcher.

Bourque Bearskin said the investment into Indigenous health nursing provides an opportunity for all nurses to make research part of their everyday practice, and shows a positive step toward enacting authentic reconciliation. Indigenous nurses hold positions that contribute significantly to reconciling nursing practices and alternate pathways in nursing and health-care service delivery.