Wendy

Research Chair, Community & Public Health Nursing

Wendy is a registered nurse and professor at a university and her research focuses on Indigenous peoples’ experience with cancer. Wendy previously worked as a clinical nurse practitioner in outpost communities in the Yukon Territory, and after a rewarding clinical career, she went to graduate school and started a career in research. Wendy’s experiences working as a nurse practitioner taught her that if you want to do research with Indigenous communities then you must develop true partnerships with community members and gain the trust of the community. Without this partnership, it is impossible for researchers to identify priorities and opportunities to intervene and develop interventions to improve health outcomes and services with in Indigenous communities. Wendy notes that creating these partnerships requires a significant amount of presence within a community to build trust, and with time more opportunities to create partnerships present themselves. One of Wendy’s memorable experiences was when an Indigenous group invited her to join them in fostering research that would help improve the health of their community. Wendy believes that the importance of the Indigenous voice in research and education is becoming increasingly recognized, and that the importance of partnerships continue to be positively acknowledged as Indigenous communities engage in rigorous research for positive health outcomes.

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• Measuring Impact of Partnership – Wendy
  In her work with Indigenous partners, Wendy believes it’s important to ask the community about the change they would like to see
• Improving Patient Care and Experiences – Wendy
  Wendy realized that there is a lack of trust in Western research by Indigenous communities
• Challenging Experiences – Wendy
  Wendy realized that she doesn’t always need to take the lead and can be guided by community partners when working together
• Looking forward – Wendy
  From her experience, Wendy highlights the need to adapt research knowledge to Indigenous realities.
• Advice to others – Wendy
  Not presuming they know what’s best for communities, is an important starting point for researchers says Wendy
• Skills for partnership – Wendy
  Wendy believes that patients have expertise about needs that researchers may be lacking
• Relationship building – Wendy (2)
  In Indigenous communities, Wendy feels that having a continuous and local presence is necessary
• Relationship building – Wendy
  When engaging community partners, Wendy says to expect that timelines may not go as planned
• Defining partnerships – Wendy (2)
  Partners or community partners are the terms that Wendy uses to describe the people she works with in the community
• Defining partnerships – Wendy
  Wendy constantly reaches out to the Indigenous community she is working with for input