International researchers, including U of T Associate Professor Quinn Grundy, find payments and gift relationships often lead physicians to more expensive, less appropriate drugs.

A new Cochrane review led by a team of international researchers including from U of T, has found that marketing strategies used by pharmaceutical companies such as payments for consulting and advisory board membership and free meals offered to physicians, can negatively influence prescribing habits.

The review compiled data from over 93 studies and included observed practices of millions of prescribers who had received either advertising and education, such as sales rep visits, gifts and payments, or free samples from pharmaceutical companies. The researchers found that these gift relationships and marketing tactics led physicians to more often prescribe the drugs a company was promoting. The data also showed that these marketing practices were strongly linked to inappropriate prescribing, meaning physicians were likely prescribing treatments that patients do not necessarily need, or that may cause harm.

Quinn Grundy is an associate professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and is one of the two Canadian authors involved in the review.  She points out that these marketing tactics employed by pharmaceutical companies are a common practice among physicians globally, with the same multi-national companies marketing their drugs worldwide.

“In the U.S., where companies are required to report payments made to physicians in a public database, just over half of all licensed physicians have accepted a payment, including free meals from a pharmaceutical company,” says Grundy, who is also the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Governance, Accountability, and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector located at the University of Toronto.  “This is important because it shows that companies are focusing their marketing resources on physicians who will deliver the highest return on investment, and prescribe more of their promoted drug, but it also shows that there are a large number of physicians who are choosing not to interact with pharmaceutical companies and remain independent of these influences.”

There were no Canadian studies included in the review, in part because Canada does not have a mechanism in place to track how much or why pharmaceutical companies are paying physicians or nurse practitioners. However, Grundy notes that according to surveys and qualitative research not included in this review, free meals and payments are likely common among Canadian prescribers.

“When physicians accept payments or free meals from the pharmaceutical industry we can see evidence in the data that physicians prescribe more of the promoted drug. This practice can increase the overall costs to our health system, and to patients through higher co-pays and out-of-pocket costs, when they are prescribed a brand name drug even though cost-effective alternatives exist,” says Grundy.

Grundy believes it is imperative that healthcare organizations, professional societies, and health professional schools be more aware of the influence of pharmaceutical industry promotion and address these through policy changes.

“Prescribers need independent, evidence-based sources of information to ensure their own independence in practice and to be trustworthy and accountable to the people they serve,” says Grundy.

Studies included in the review also examined the impact of conflict-of-interest policies or limitations on physician interactions with industry in the practice setting such as within medical schools and teaching hospitals. The review showed that in these instances, conflict-of-interest policies had a mitigating effect where physicians tended to prescribe less overall or prescribed more appropriate treatments. The review authors suggest that more robust conflict-of-interest policies would be an important way forward to reduce the influence of pharma on prescribers.

“These studies show that we can create practice environments that promote and preserve independence and that this is best achieved collectively, within health systems and institutions, rather than leaving it up to individual clinicians,” says Grundy.

While the available research focused on physicians in many health systems, including Canada, physicians are no longer the only prescribers. Other descriptive studies using the Open Payments data in the U.S., and which were not included in this review, found that advanced practice nurses, including nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists, are also targets of industry promotion.

“This is not just a problem for medicine, it affects the entire healthcare team,” says Grundy. “We need to create healthcare environments that safeguard the independence and integrity of care.”

When BScN student Andrea Kallumadyil found out that she was the recipient of a Sopman Humanitarian Award, she admits that at first she felt a bit of imposter syndrome.

“I wondered if I had done anything worthy of an award like that,” says Kallumadyil.

However, after meeting the Sopman Family at the award celebration, and hearing stories about the other award winners, she realized that she was in the company of so many healthcare workers who were being recognized for the genuine care they provide their patients.

“More than getting the award, reading the nomination letter was validating. It was nice to know that someone saw and recognized the work I had done, and that I was providing good care,” says Kallymadyil.

Recognizing compassion in caring for patients

The Sopman Humanitarian Awards were established over four decades ago by the Sopman family after witnessing the compassionate care received a loved one. Each year, the awards recognize emerging physicians, surgeons and nurses, who go above and beyond in their ability to demonstrate compassion and humanity in the care of their patients.

Kallumadyil was nominated for the care she provided a patient in the Psychiatric Emergency Services Unit (PESU) of a Toronto area hospital during her community placement.

The patient had very severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and wounds on both legs that needed to be addressed. However, because of the patient’s significant fear of contamination they had not received wound care for many months.

“It would be easy for a health care provider to get frustrated in these types of situations or to think that this person does not care about their health,” says Kallumadyil. “But in the PESU, you realize quickly that unless you address the psychological concerns of your patient, you will only continue to provide them with fragmented care.”

Providing good care

Drawing on her previous experience as the Director of Health and Wellness for a retirement home, Kallumadyil spent a lot of time with the patient over the course of two days, building a rapport and gaining their trust. At the patient’s request, only Kallumadyil could in the end provide them with wound care, which took several hours to complete.

This level of intensive care highlighted for Kallumadyil the importance of student nurses, and the impact they can have during their placements. She knows how difficult it would have been for a nurse with many other patients, to have spent such a significant amount of time with a single patient.

This experience reinforced for Kallumadyil the very reason she chose to pursue nursing in the first place. Coming from a family of nurses, she only recently considered this career shift because she recognized the considerable leadership role nurses play across healthcare.

“It doesn’t always feel like people are in healthcare for the right reasons, not everyone goes above and beyond, but the staff at the PESU modelled that it just takes a few extra minutes to understand what a patient needs and build rapport and that can go a long way in changing someone’s care trajectory,” says Kallumadyil.

Her care for her patient during her placement not only addressed their physical wounds but also led to a chain of events that put the patient on the path to healing.

“Literally and metaphorically, we were able to peel back layers for this patient, which led us to help them figure out their housing situation and receive care from wound care specialists. Making the effort to sit with this patient and listening to their concerns helped them develop a new sense of trust in the health care system,” says Kallumadyil.

Working in the PESU and caring for patients with mental health concerns is something Kallumadyil sees herself doing long-term. Being the first point of interaction someone might have with the healthcare system is an opportunity, she says, to address someone’s physical and mental health needs and make a difference in their life.

In 2024, PhD student Navisha Weerasinghe received Canada Graduate Scholarship-Doctoral from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) in support of her exploratory study on single use products in health care settings and their impact on climate and health, specifically the use of gloves.

In healthcare, gloves are used as part of infection prevention and control (IPAC) practices when there is a risk of potential exposure to blood or bodily fluids or for specific isolation protocols, but Weerasinghe says, gloves are also frequently used even when they are not clinically necessary.

Over-use of gloves

The over-use of gloves can pose potential harm Weerasinghe adds, not just to patients and care workers, but also the environment. Gloves create a perceived sense of safety and have been seen as a barrier to less frequent hand hygiene practices, creating an additional risk of cross contamination if gloves are not used properly.

“Gloves provide a visual physical barrier, but they also have micropores which means if care providers are not also performing hand hygiene, they are putting themselves at potential risk,” says Weerasinghe.

Single use gloves also have a huge impact on the environment because of the extended amount of time – close to 200 years – that it takes for them to break down in a landfill.

“When you think of the accumulation of how many single-use gloves are being used and now sitting in landfills, the environmental harm is significant,” Weerasinghe says. “I was struck by this paradox that in health we are to do no harm, but through the increased use of single-use products such as gloves, we are contributing to CO² emissions that can also lead to climate related illness.”

Gloves-Off Campaign

In 2009, the World Health Organization released a guideline on glove use, that inspired a national “Gloves Off” campaign here in Canada in 2023 for healthcare institutions to implement. Though the pandemic increased the use of PPE among all health workers, “Gloves Off” campaigns have continued to gather momentum in various countries around the world signaling that many health workers are beginning to think critically about the environmental impact of single use products.

To understand different perspectives on glove use in health care, Weerasinghe is conducting a critical qualitative study that includes participant interviews with clustered groups of individuals, those involved in IPAC in hospital systems, those involved in selling or procuring gloves, those who have important knowledge on the environmental impacts of single-use products and gloves, and any point of care worker involved in a “Gloves Off” campaign or who may have valuable insights around glove use in the hospital setting.

Her research also includes an ethnographic field study that has Weerasinghe attending IPAC and environmental conferences speaking to industry representatives and health care providers about their perspectives on glove use and the promotional materials advertising glove use both inside and outside of acute care settings that have implications on practice.

“It has been interesting to hear about the incremental use of gloves over time including after the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and how donning gloves has become almost second nature to health care workers. Many participants I spoke with have also noticed an increased shift in glove and PPE use following the COVID-19 pandemic, which may speak to the lasting impacts of infectious related events in practice” says Weerasinghe.

Her research, which is focused on Ontario, will also take into consideration how risk is perceived by point of care workers across healthcare and how the pandemic has shaped those perceptions.

Weerasinghe also stresses that glove use is not a single organizational issue, it is a shared dominant practice across healthcare, and its environmental impact includes the production, transportation, use, and disposal of the product.

“A lot of these changes need to be policy driven, they cannot solely be on the point of care worker to solve,” says Weerasinghe. “I hope that my research will continue to drive critical thinking around the tensions between safety, infection control, and the environment, and offer meaningful contributions to evolving practices and policies.”  

When Tina Kaur worked as a nurse in shelters providing health care to the young people residing there, many of whom were immigrants to Canada, she often wondered what happened to them when they transitioned out of the shelter system.

“Typically, as a nurse, you stay connected with your patient until they are improved, but for me, my scope of practice was limited by where my patients lived,” says Kaur. “I saw this huge gap in care provision for these youth, because once they transitioned into housing their access to health care became more limited.”

Kaur’s experience led her to the PhD program at Bloomberg Nursing, where she is now in her final year. In 2024, she received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant to understand how homeless youth access health care when their living situation changes.

The funding provided significant support for Kaur who faced the challenge of building relationships with a hard-to-reach population and engaging them in speaking with her for the study. Focusing on Toronto, which has one of the largest youth shelters in the province, Kaur conducted a qualitative study with youth between the ages of 16-26 who had moved into housing within the last three years. This provided her with a diverse set of perspectives, with some youth having settled into housing while others had made the transition more recently.

Findings show fragmented care

Her findings showed considerable fragmentation in the youth’s ability to access the health care services they needed. Only 44 per cent of youth in this study were connected to primary care compared to close to 75 per cent of youth in the general population.

Additionally, compared to the average population, more of the youth in the study had a higher need for access to health care because of mental health concerns or substance use issues. Some of them Kaur says, were connected to specialists but not primary care, so once they left the shelter it became their responsibility to navigate the health care system, including seeing their specialists.

“We would label this as invisible work; normally a parent, or a primary care provider would be coordinating care for them, but these youth were expected to do this themselves,” says Kaur.

This leads to a greater reliance on acute care access through the emergency department. And for many of the youth who were trying to maintain their housing or going to school to end the cycle of poverty they found themselves in, focusing on health care was just not a priority.

Research aims to reimagine transitional care planning

For Kaur it became clear that access to housing alone did not bridge any gaps in care utilization. Her research points to an important opportunity to reimagine transitional care planning for homeless youth and the need to develop interventions that follow them as they transition into the community.

“One of my biggest hopes with this research is to raise awareness of unmet health care needs for these youth, because  they do want health care access, and they need it to feel their best,” says Kaur. “We should be helping to remove barriers for them so they can access these services.”

At the start of each academic year, incoming BScN students receive words of wisdom from the nurses who have come before them. These little bits of advice and encouragement are part of a long-standing Faculty tradition of welcoming new nursing students during their orientation week providing a unique form of connection between alumni and current students.

This year, Bloomberg Nursing asked three alumni why they participated in the Words of Wisdom program and invited them to share one piece of advice for these future nurses.

Nathaniel Mannella (BScN 2018, MN-HSLA 2024) remembers the guidance and advice he received from faculty, staff and friends during each of his degree programs at Bloomberg Nursing, and how that mentorship helped him navigate every crossroads and tough moment. That support is what motivated him to participate in the Words of Wisdom program each year.

“I still vividly remember receiving my note from an alum on my first day of the BScN program. It made me feel seen and validated knowing that someone else had stood in my anxious shoes,” says Mannella. “If I can help even one student realize that yes, they absolutely belong here, it is entirely worth it.”

Mannella’s career path has led him to the nursing education sector, but he says it took him awhile to figure out and define his interests.

Take your time

“Take your time, practice self-care and embrace the journey. Experiment with your passions, and don’t give up, because there is something out there for you,” says Mannella.

Vanessa DaSilva (BScN 2023) knows how much pressure new nursing students face. As a recent graduate, she wanted to help others starting the program for the first time, feel a little more at ease.

“I wanted to remind students that they don’t have to have everything figured out from the very beginning. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed, and it’s okay to ask questions. It is important to take everything one step at a time,” says DaSilva.

DaSilva says that graduating and becoming a registered nurse was an incredibly meaningful milestone but the things she cherished most were the friendships she made along the way, and the challenges they overcame together.

Be curious

“Be curious, ask questions, and do not be afraid to make mistakes. Every lecture, clinical experience, and patient interaction is an opportunity to learn and grow. Give yourself grace and don’t compare your progress to anyone else,” says DaSilva.

Charissa Cordon (BScN 2004) chose to participate in the Words of Wisdom program because she wanted to helpnew students see the possibilities that exist within nursing by sharing her own lessons and experiences that have shaped her 20 year long nursing career.

Cordon discovered her passion for oncology nursing during nursing school while on her clinical placement at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. She says that experience had a lasting impact on her, and reminder her about why she chose nursing in the first place – to build meaningful relationships with patients and families.

Never stop learning

“Stay open to new opportunities and never stop learning. If you don’t yet know what you want to specialize in, don’t worry about it. The choices you make early in your career do not define your entire career. Also, relationships matter! Throughout your career you will realize that most of the important opportunities and lessons come from the people around you,” says Cordon.

Jacelynn Su and Abeeha Shuja are two members of the inaugural BScN cohort set to begin the accelerated two-year program at U of T Mississauga where they will learn and complete clinical placements across Peel and the western GTA.

Abeeha Shuja realized she belonged in healthcare while working at a group home supporting children with autism spectrum disorder, developmental delays, dual diagnosis, and traumatic brain injuries.

At first, she had been scared, having never had that kind of responsibility before, but she quickly grew into the role. Shuja enjoyed spending time with the kids in the home, and always found herself thinking about how she could better support them and improve their care.

She also realized how few community resources were available to children with disabilities, which motivated her to stay on in the role even on days when it was challenging.

“That experience shaped me as a human being. It changed how I see the world and how I see the people who are on the front line of healthcare,” says Shuja. “It made me wonder how I can serve better and be a better person.”

Joining the new BScN cohort at U of T Mississauga

Shuja is an incoming first year nursing student in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) program at Bloomberg Nursing, and part of the Faculty’s inaugural cohort located at U of T Mississauga. This program expansion, which starts this fall, creates a pathway to become a nurse for students from diverse communities in Peel and regions west of Toronto.  By completing their placements at leading healthcare organizations in the western GTA, closer to where they call home, students are more likely to stay after graduation and practice nursing in the region.

This expansion is the second for Bloomberg Nursing, which has also launched an inaugural cohort of Nurse Practitioner students at U of T Scarborough as part of the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH). Both cohorts are focused on providing better access to care in these communities.

“The expansion of our academic programs is one of the ways in which Bloomberg Nursing is leading in the advancement of nursing education and responding to the evolving needs of health care across the western GTA. We are committed to supporting equitable and accessible health where it is most needed,” says Robyn Stremler, Dean of the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.

For Shuja, she chose to be part of the BScN cohort at U of T Mississauga because she understands there is a genuine need for health care in this area. Having lived in the surrounding region she and her family have had first-hand experience with limited primary care access, and feeling like their problems were sometimes dismissed.

“I know how impactful it can be to have a healthcare professional see you as a person and not the problem you are presenting. As a nurse, I hope to be a part of a changing health system,” says Shuja.

Trillium Health Partners (THP) is one of the clinical placement partners providing hands-on learning experiences for students in this expanded cohort. Terri Irwin (MN2005) a Bloomberg Nursing alumna and Executive Vice President, Patient Care Services, and Chief Nursing Executive, at THP, says that this expansion is essential to shaping a healthier community.

“At Trillium Health Partners, students gain hands-on experience across the full continuum of care, learn from exceptional preceptors, and become part of a strong academic and interdisciplinary culture that prepares them to thrive as the next generation of nurses,” says Irwin.

Part of a community on campus

For Jacelynn Su, choosing to apply to the nursing program located at U of T Mississauga meant she could continue to be a part of the community she built during her first degree.

Su is already a U of T Mississauga graduate and residence don. Originally from Calgary, she says it took her a few years to settle in and find a sense of community on campus but once she did, it made life a lot easier.

“I’m excited to be a part of this new cohort because it means that I get to keep the community I’ve found in Mississauga while being a Bloomberg Nursing student. It means a lot to me,” says Su.

Both Su and Shuja are looking forward to learning more about the opportunities available to them as nurses and beginning their clinical placements in and around the community. While they are still exploring where nursing will take them, they are eager to learn and apply the knowledge they gain into real-life settings.

“I want to be working where I am the best nurse possible, wherever in the region that ends up being,” says Shuja.

by Mariam Matti, U of T News

Lakshmi Asokan is a member of the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing’s first cohort of nurse practitioner students in the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health at U of T Scarborough

Lakshmi Asokan was in Grade 4 when she first noticed the cultural and language barriers faced by her immigrant Sri Lankan family as they navigated the Canadian health-care system. 

Her grandmother had just been hospitalized. Asokan watched her parents sit through complicated updates on blood work and treatment plans – but wondered how much of the medical terminology was actually being absorbed. 

It often fell to Asokan and her sisters to fill in the gaps, piecing together how to move forward with her grandmother’s care.

“It was very scary,” she recalls. “There were some parts I didn’t understand but I did my best to translate. I was lucky enough to have three sisters who shared the burden.”      

Now a registered nurse and incoming nurse practitioner student at the University of Toronto’s Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, Asokan still thinks about that hospital room and the families who faced the same struggles.

Asokan is a member of Bloomberg Nursing’s first cohort of nurse practitioner students in the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH) at U of T Scarborough. The expanded program, which launches this fall, is designed to allow students to complete their clinical placements in the eastern Greater Toronto Area, with SAMIH providing training for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and physical therapists, with the goal of advancing the region’s clinical capacity.  

For Asokan, the program offers an opportunity to deepen her clinical expertise while serving the community she has long called home. 

After completing her undergraduate degree in human biology and psychology at U of T Scarborough, she worked in various roles at the Scarborough Health Network and at North York General Hospital in the neonatal intensive care unit and pediatrics.  

But as a registered nurse, Asokan felt limited in the care she was able to provide. “There have been a lot of times where I knew what my patient needed, but my scope of practice meant that I couldn’t provide the care independently,” she says. “So I guess I just wanted to be able to assess, diagnose, prescribe and provide continuity of care instead of just handing that responsibility off to someone else. 

“Becoming a nurse practitioner allows me to combine compassion and a holistic care approach.”

That commitment to community has been evident throughout her life. While volunteering in patient relations at Centenary Hospital, part of the Scarborough Health Network, Asokan was occasionally called to other units to help translate for Tamil-speaking families. “As soon as the family saw me, I saw relief in their faces,” she says.

Experiences like that helped shape Asokan’s ambition to eventually open her own clinic in Scarborough.

Beyond providing treatment, she envisions the clinic as a hub of community resources that can help families navigate complex scenarios. “My approach would definitely be looking at everyone’s life as a whole and not just one treatment or one illness – culturally competent care, and focusing on the individual and their life versus just their illness.”  

For Asokan, the goal is to create the kind of patient-centred environment her own family often struggled to find – one that places greater emphasis on communication, community-based follow-up care and the impact of diet, lifestyle and cultural practices on health outcomes.

That same commitment to supporting community has also shaped Asokan’s involvement outside clinical settings. As a U of T Scarborough undergraduate, she was involved in an array of campus activities and organizations, ranging from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto and the UTSG Tamil Students’ Association to the Racialized Students’ Collective and the Love Scarborough campaign. 

She hopes to be equally engaged as a graduate student – she’s already signed up as a mentee in a new peer mentorship program for incoming nurse practitioner students, and aims to become a mentor herself next year. 

Now, as a member of the inaugural cohort of the nurse practitioner program, Asokan sees an opportunity to bring those experiences together while helping shape the future of care in Scarborough. 

“Scarborough has always been home, and I understand the community,” she says. “Being part of the first cohort feels like a chance to help build something meaningful from the very beginning.”

Read more about Lakshmi Asokan at Global News

Elliott has a well-established background as a nurse educator whose research scholarship is focused on trauma-informed care and education.

Rachel Elliott has spent much of her career thinking about how to prepare the next generation of nurses. As a passionate and driven nurse educator, she is deeply committed to helping students learn how to be a good nurse, but also how to see themselves as change agents within the healthcare system.

“As an educator I love to help mentor students, and walk alongside them. I work hard to create innovative learning experiences so that they see themselves belonging in the profession and at the tables where the future of healthcare is being shaped,” says Elliott.

Elliott joined Bloomberg Nursing this summer as an Assistant Professor – teaching stream, with previous teaching experience at the college level and more recently at the University of Windsor. When she learned of the opportunity to join U of T’s Bloomberg Nursing, she knew she couldn’t turn it down.

Embedding trauma-informed care into education

“It feels so special to join a community with such a high level of expertise, and a faculty that values and resources teaching,” says Elliott. “I see teaching as scholarship and transformative work, and I feel like I can contribute here.”

Elliott’s scholarship has focused on embedding trauma-informed care into undergraduate nursing education. Her interest in this area emerged, she says, during her clinical experiences and Master’s research, when she worked as a critical care nurse and on-call for sexual assault and domestic violence in the emergency department. Through this clinical experience, she recognized a gap in training to help women who were experiencing this form of violence, and she wanted to help them feel safe and trauma-informed.

During her Master’s degree, Elliott worked on a one-on-one intervention with women after leaving a violent relationship. Her research shaped how she wanted to apply her learning into her clinical practice, knowing that for many women, a terrible experience in healthcare can shape their future help-seeking.  

As an educator, Elliott has thought deeply about why concepts and content related to trauma are not strategically embedded into the undergraduate curriculum. Nurses, she says, need to have those skills because trauma is so prevalent in the population.

“Two-thirds of Canadians will experience a traumatic event in their lifetime. How we educate nurses to care for our community is therefore so important,” says Elliott.

Helping students feel seen

In the classroom, she wants students to feel seen. She provides a relational approach to teaching, focusing on being approachable and accessible for students so they feel safe coming to office hours and asking questions. She also wants them to feel like they belong to the nursing profession, right from the start of their academic journey.

“I really encourage students to have a voice. Showing up is not enough; I want them to be engaged and share their opinions because that is nursing – that is what will help them think critically and make clinical judgments to care for patients,” says Elliott.

With the start of the fall term around the corner, Elliott is looking forward to meeting students in the BScN program and helping them see all of the possibilities available within nursing.

“Sometimes students don’t know what they want to do yet, or have preconceived notions about nursing,” says Elliott. “I hope I can help them think differently about what is possible.”

Carly Whitmore a registered nurse and applied health services researcher, is focused on improving mental health care and the systems in which that care is provided. She has recently joined the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing as an Assistant Professor (tenure stream) and as the CAMH Chair in Mental Health Nursing, a position jointly held with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

Whitmore officially began her new role on August 1, 2026.

“We are honoured to welcome Dr. Whitmore to Bloomberg Nursing as one of our Research Chairs held at the Faculty. Her research expertise and focus on improving mental health care access and integration across the health system, are an asset to our Faculty and I look forward to seeing the impact of Dr. Whitmore’s important work,” says Robyn Stremler, Dean of the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.

Improving care access and achieving better outcomes

Building on the foundation of her expertise as an RN in psychiatric care, much of Whitmore’s research has focused on evaluating and implementing new approaches to improve care access and achieve better outcomes for people living with mental health concerns and co-occurring chronic conditions.

“It is difficult to imagine a more exciting research environment to be in, both at Bloomberg Nursing, one of the world’s top ranked nursing schools, and CAMH, a global leader in mental health innovation,” says Whitmore. “To me, this role represents an important opportunity to accelerate research with clear and meaningful links to clinical practice.”

 “We are delighted to welcome Dr. Whitmore back to CAMH. Her work to better integrate mental and physical health care strongly aligns with research underway across CAMH, and this Chair offers an exciting opportunity to strengthen nursing-led research and its impact on care,” says Sean Kidd, Senior Scientist and Co-Director of the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at CAMH.

Taking on this academic position is a bit of a home coming for Whitmore, who was previously a post-doctoral fellow at CAMH. It is also an opportunity she says, to partner with nurses, care teams, and patients with lived experience, to identify the issues that matter most, and deliver solutions in collaboration.  

“I never lose sight of the fact that I am a nurse, and I approach my research from an angle of clinical integration. I want the work I do as a researcher to be relevant to the nurse who is at the point of care,” says Whitmore.

The right people providing the right care

Whitmore’s work aims to address the disparity in outcomes—including life expectancy— for those living with serious mental illness. Too often, individuals experience preventable complications of chronic disease, such as diabetes or other metabolic conditions because they are not getting the care they need.

“There are individuals whose mental and physical health is deeply interconnected but delivered in fragmented ways in different settings, by different people. That doesn’t reflect the reality of what health looks like,” says Whitmore of the driving motivation behind her research. “I want to find out how can we ensure the right people are providing the right care in the right places and address the system behaviours that are barriers.”

As she looks forward to her role at Bloomberg Nursing including teaching graduate and undergraduate students, Whitmore hopes to be the kind of mentor that she once had, someone who shares the breadth and strength of what a nursing career has to offer.

“I want to help students find joy in asking questions and solving problems, that would be the greatest impact I could have on the next generation of nurses,” says Whitmore.

Myra Collins has been a consistent monthly donor to the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing’s Annual Fund for many years. This fund allows the Dean of Bloomberg Nursing to respond to some of the Faculty’s highest priority needs, including emergency student bursaries.

That is exactly the type of support Collins says she is keen to provide, and as a monthly donor, she feels it is easier than ever to give back even while being on a budget.

“I chose to give monthly because it was the easiest thing to do, I don’t have to think about it, the amount just comes out of my credit card and I know that I am making a difference,” says Collins.

Financial aid supported her nursing education

Her reasons for giving are deeply rooted in her experience as a nursing student, and the incredible financial support she received that enabled her to attend the University of Toronto.

“I had a dream of being a nurse, I had romanticized it a bit after reading the Cherry Ames Series which was popular at the time, but I couldn’t’ afford to attend U of T,” says Collins.

Instead, Collins applied to nursing at a different university and when she attended a Toronto Public Health clinic to receive her required vaccines, the nurse asked her if she was attending U of T.

“I explained that I couldn’t afford it, and she told me to head straight back to my guidance counselor because there was a way that they could help me,” says Collins.

That help came in the form of bursaries from the Victorian Order of Nurses which required that students supported by their funds, work in public health after graduation. She also received significant support from the University of Toronto Nursing Alumni Association.

“Those funds from nursing alumni were what sustained me during my schooling. I have never forgotten how much that support helped me,” says Collins.

Support for future nurses

When Collins was beginning her program, tuition was just $400 a year. She knows that the rising cost of tuition for nursing students now can be a barrier for many who, just like her, had a dream of becoming a nurse.

“Now as a nursing alumna I also have the opportunity to support future nurses, and I am very proud to be able to do that in whatever way I can,” says Collins.

Learn how you can support Bloomberg Nursing students and the Faculty’s most urgent priorities by making a one-time or monthly gift to the Nursing Annual Fund.