Research

BCNU is pleased to partner with the Menopause Foundation of Canada (MFC) to raise awareness, advance education, and conduct important research on the effects and impacts of menopause on the nurse workforce.

In May 2024, BCNU collaborated with the MFC to produce the Menopause and Nursing in Canada report. BCNU organized focus groups with nurse members to help tell the story of how managing menopausal symptoms can impact nurses' work experience.

See more details and the full report. 

Michael Smith Health Research BC is the province’s health research agency, funded by the government of British Columbia. Health Research BC helps develop, retain, and attract researchers whose work improves the health of British Columbians, addresses health system priorities, creates jobs and adds to the knowledge economy.

BCNU began a partnership with Health Research BC in 2022, with the intention to co-fund nursing research projects that promote evidence-based research for innovation within nursing, aligning with the union’s core values. Since the partnership began, BCNU has supported several awards leading to successful research projects that can have meaningful impacts on patients, health practitioners and policy makers within the health-care system. 

Visit the Health Research BC website to learn more. 

The PHC Practice-Based Research Challenge is an annual competition to give point-of-care PHC staff new to research the opportunity to learn about research and conduct their own clinical practice project. Teams work with a mentor(s) to develop a research proposal around their research question. Participants will learn basic research skills and compete with other teams for funding to conduct a small-scale research project. Funding is provided by various organizations and distributed to the research teams.

Past years have seen a number of project teams made up of and/or led by nurses.  A report from PHC highlighted that nurses make up the majority of team participants, a trend that has continued.

BCNU has been a long-time supporter of the PHC Research Challenge. Several of our members who have participated have achieved notable success, implementing impactful practice-based changes through their projects.

Learn more about the PHC Research Challenge. 

The VCH Knowledge Translation Challenge is designed to support teams of clinicians who may not have knowledge translation expertise but are responsible for moving evidence into practice. Knowledge translation plays an important role in maximizing the impacts of health research. This program offers resources, mentorship and funding to support participants with the design and implementation of their own knowledge translation projects.  

BCNU contributed to the funding of the 2024 VCH KT Challenge, helping nurse-led teams to share and increase knowledge within their practice areas.

Visit the VCH KT Challenge website for more information. 

The BC Cancer Practice-Based Research Challenge is an annual program that offers BC Cancer employees with limited, or no research experience the opportunity to learn basic research skills and work with a mentor to develop a small-scale research project that has potential to improve practice and patient care by finding evidence-based answers through research.

With the support of BCNU, the BC Cancer Research Challenge has provided training on research processes to a number of nurses, helping to progress projects that focus on improvements to patient outcomes.

Learn more about the BC Cancer Research Challenge.