Navigating the Tempest : Nursing Practice during COVID-19

Jennifer Baumbusch, Associate Professor & CIHR Sex & Gender Science Chair – Dynamics of Caregiving in an Aging Society, UBC School of Nursing

Dr. Baumbusch directs a research programme on health care delivery and nursing practice with older adults. Her focus is in long-term residential care, family contributions to care delivery, well-being among individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families, and knowledge translation. She has expertise in critical ethnography and practice-close research. Jennifer is committed to community-based research principles through active engagement of individuals, clinicians, service providers, and organizations.

Vini Bains is a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) for the Critical Care Program at Providence Health Care in BC. She has 18 years of clinical experience as an ICU nurse and 5 years in the role of a CNS.  Vini holds a Masters degree in Nursing from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver BC) as well as maintaining her Canadian Nurses Association Certification in Critical Care [CNCC(C)] since 2012. Vini also volunteers as Director of the Western Region for the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses (CACCN).

Natasha Prodan-Bhalla is the Chief Nurse and Professional Practice Officer in the Ministry of Health.  In this role she leads the Nursing Policy Secretariat which provides strategic direction and provincial oversight for all nursing designations as well as Midwives.

She has worked in numerous inaugural leadership roles throughout her career and has demonstrated strong advocacy and vision for the nursing profession in BC.  In 2003, she was the founding President of the British Columbia Nurse Practitioner Association and one of the first Nurse Practitioners (NP) to practice in BC.  She has developed and implemented several NP roles and programs over the last two decades including the post-operative cardiac surgery NP role in BC as well as the first primary prevention program for women at risk for heart disease in Canada. She is an adjunct professor in the Schools of Nursing at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria.

She obtained her BScN from Western University, her MN/NP from the University of Toronto and her Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Colorado.

Yvonne Coghill is currently the Director, Workforce Race Equality, NHS London, prior to which she was the Director for the Workforce Race Equality Implementation Team in NHS England/Improvement. She is a member of faculty at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in the United States where she helped develop their inclusion strategy. Yvonne has delivered lectures on inclusion and diversity at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts and the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She continues to work closely with world expert on health and race Professor D. Williams, of Harvard University School of Public Health.