Janet

Early career researcher in cancer and health systems

Janet is a full-time early career researcher, whose professional career began as an occupational therapist (OT). As an OT, she had worked in partnership with Indigenous communities for some time, and now applies her learnings from these experiences to her work as an academic researcher. Janet commits a significant amount of time volunteering in Indigenous communities to foster and build relationships with community members and create opportunities for research partnerships. Having established partnerships has helped Janet and her research colleagues in setting research priorities that are important to the specific needs of the community. Despite the challenges Janet faces at times with balancing her academic and volunteer commitments, she feels deeply satisfied with her time spent connecting with community members. Janet has noticed that research partnerships within Indigenous communities are becoming more common and that researchers should campaign for defined guidelines and supports to further advance these partnerships. As well, she feels that community members can advocate on behalf of their community to raise awareness regarding local needs and how they can work together to address those needs.  

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• Improving Patient Care and Experiences – Janet
  
• Improving Patient Care and Experiences – Janet
  Learning from Indigenous community partners has contributed to Janet’s personal and professional growth
• Defining partnerships – Janet
  Partnerships with patients involves on-going negotiation in Janet’s experience
• Motivations – Janet
  Janet noticed that assessments for pediatric growth were not specific to the Inuit population