The objective of this program is to strengthen nursing research capacity by providing research training opportunities for undergraduate nursing students at UBC-Vancouver.
Undergraduate research studentships are available to BSN students at the UBC School of Nursing. Selected students will be awarded a 4-week, full-time studentship in August 2025 (or equivalent hours to be completed before Sept 2025), and will receive a $3,000 stipend. To be considered, students must be full-time students in the UBC BSN program.
Interested BSN students are asked to email their resumé, cover letter, and preferred project(s) to merrilee.hughes@ubc.ca by March 19, 2025.
AVAILABLE STUDENTSHIPS INCLUDE:
Canadian news media reporting on involuntary substance use treatment: A discourse analysis
Research Description: Recent provincial policy initiatives and increasing news media on involuntary substance use treatment present a timely opportunity to take a critical policy studies perspective on a controversial intervention that is gaining public support. As such, the objective of this study is to critically examine how involuntary substance use treatment is materializing in contemporary news media in Canada. Guided by a Foucauldian discourse analysis approach, the project team will undertake a mixed-methods analysis to explore the nature of Canadian news media reporting on involuntary substance use treatment over the last decade, including the scope and degree of the reporting (quantitative) and its messaging, tone, and context (qualitative). Data will comprise news media articles, retrieved from Canadian Newsstream, a bibliographic database of more than 360 major newspaper from across Canada. Articles will be imported into Covidence and screened for study inclusion criteria by two independent reviewers. A data extraction protocol will be developed and utilized to extract key information from all included articles, such as the province/territory of the publication, experts represented, type/setting of involuntary treatment discussed, rationale expressed for involuntary treatment, knowledge/evidence claims made in relation to this policy approach, potential benefits and risks/harms identified, and additional interventions presented. This process will support data familiarization and lay the groundwork for a more in-depth discourse analysis, utilizing a subset of N=100 news media articles, randomly sampled from the full set of articles (ten articles from each year between 2016 and 2025). The analysis will be guided by Foucault’s writings on discourse, power/knowledge, and governmentality, and further informed by ideas about ‘evidence-making,’ from science and technology studies. This approach will direct examination of the discursive logics underlying how media and interviewed experts engage with evidence and controversy surrounding involuntary substance use treatment. By generating new knowledge about how media and the wider public think and talk about involuntary treatment, this study will inform efforts to dispel misinformation and advance more constructive dialogue and drug policy actions.
Role of the Student: Student development and capacity building are project priorities and will be facilitated through close engagement with the project lead, Dr. Trevor Goodyear, a new faculty with protected research time and established expertise in critical drug policy studies. The student will be involved in all aspects of this media discourse analysis and related knowledge mobilization activities. They will contribute to developing the media analysis search protocol (in collaboration with Dr. Goodyear and an experienced library and information science specialist at UBC), screening media articles for study inclusion, conducting the initial data extraction for the media articles, informing the discourse analysis (e.g., by participating in analysis meetings and writing data summaries), and helping to prepare the literature review and methods sections of the manuscript, which they will co-author. There will also be opportunity for student involvement in wider knowledge mobilization activities, including through supporting the conference oral/poster presentation, co-authoring an op-ed publication and/or policy brief, and developing key messages for media interviews. The student may additionally contribute to preparing grant applications for future research on the topic of involuntary substance use treatment, for which Dr. Goodyear anticipates there being continued student training and research assistantship opportunities.
Learning Health System Project
Research Description: The Learning Health System constitutes an innovative framework designed to promote continuous learning, engagement, and collaboration among all stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem, with the objective of perpetually enhancing the quality of care. The primary aim of Dr. Lillian Hung's research team is to assess the impact of a Learning Community, operating within the Learning Health System model, on the improvement of care transitions for individuals living with dementia. Furthermore, this project seeks to provide guidance for the scaling and dissemination of this strategy, thereby driving sustainable improvements in dementia care at Vancouver Coastal Health and beyond. Expected outcomes of this initiative include: (1) Enhanced experiences for residents and their families, (2) Improved evidence-based practices and experiences among staff, and (3) Increased efficiency within the health system by reducing hospital readmissions, limiting inappropriate antipsychotic use, and promoting better staff retention.
Role of the Student:
• Support and participate in the activities conducted by the research team.
• Contribute to the knowledge translation materials and platforms.
• Document project workflow and challenges.
• Schedule team meetings and perform administrative tasks as required for smooth execution.
VR Storytelling to improve the quality of life for older adults living with dementia
Research Description:
Virtual Reality (VR) project aims to improve the quality of life for older adults living with dementia. VR is a promising technology that can improve mood, decrease agitation, and provide much-needed respite to caregivers. The research aims to implement VR in Long Term Care (LTC) settings and explore the thoughts, preferences, and needs of using AR/VR among residents, their families, and staff members. Our team will research implementing VR in LTC homes to promote social engagement. Findings from this study will provide a better understanding of the experiences and attitudes toward using VR among residents, families, and staff. The incumbent will support the project's research component and use available resources to enhance the project delivery.
Role of the Student: The student will be mentored by Dr. Lillian Hung's team to:
• Engage in liaison between patient and family partners, team members, and organizations.
• Coordinate different aspects of a research study, including data collection and analysis.
• Schedule team meetings and perform administrative tasks as required for smooth execution.
• Support and participate in the activities conducted by the research team.
• Contribute to the knowledge translation materials and platforms.
• Document project workflow and challenges.
Agenda Gap: Youth-led policy advocacy to promote adolescent mental health and advance health equity across socioecological domains
Research Description: Globally, there is growing acknowledgement of the importance of engaging youth in policy processes to ensure their lived experiences and expertise are reflected at a policy level. The benefits of youth engagement in policy decision-making are wide ranging: empowerment, life skills, self-esteem, democratic and citizenship skills; resiliency; and the identification of issues, overlooked by others that increases decision-making and solution relevancy and uptake. Yet, there is a paucity of evidence on how to do this effectively. Responding to these gaps and opportunities, this multi-phase project, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Mental Health Promotion – Innovation Fund, aims to contribute to the science and practice of youth policy engagement – a key mental health promotion lever.
In the first project phase (2019-2021), a theory-informed intervention, Agenda Gap (led by Dr. Emily Jenkins), was implemented and tested. Developed in partnership with young people from diverse contexts and backgrounds, the program centers youth expertise and equips youth to identify factors in their community that impact youth mental health, develop strategies to effect policy change, and engage in collaborative policymaking processes to promote mental wellbeing across the socioecological levels. In the current phase (2022-2026), the program is being refined and tested in a variety of settings, in partnership with various community partners, using mixed methods realist evaluation. This theory-driven approach supports insights into what works, for whom, and in what contexts. Project objectives are to: 1) adapt, implement and evaluate Agenda Gap to promote protective factors and address health equity and the underlying determinants of health across settings and populations in Canada; 2) strengthen and grow the project’s multi-level and multi-sectoral vested partnerships to continue to effect upstream systems change within priority determinants of mental health; and 3) scale the tested and refined version of Agenda Gap for greater impact and to foster sustainable policy and program development in the field of mental health promotion for diverse populations and communities. Research findings and partnership development will support sustainable program scale up in a third project phase.
Role of the Student: The student will be integrated into the project team and trained in the qualitative data collection methods to measure/track inputs, implementation processes, and intervention outcomes. The student will be trained in 1:1 qualitative interviewing and thematic data analysis, including the use of NVivo 14, to conduct and analyze post-intervention semi-structured interviews with youth participants (aged 15-24), facilitators and select adult mentors. This will contribute new understandings of underlying Agenda Gap mechanisms once youth participants have completed program activities. The student will also receive training and participate in Ripple Effect Mapping activities, a qualitative evaluation technique that will engage youth and program allies in identifying multi-level program impacts and impact pathways over time. While the products of this work will be generated following the formal summer student position, the student’s contributions will be acknowledged in these and there will be ongoing opportunities to engage the student with the development of these products to build their KT skills and research track record (e.g., report writing, presentations, peer-reviewed publication).
Women and Forced Migration: An Intersectionality-Framed Community-Based Approach to Engaging with Women’s Experiences of Accessing Health and Social Systems
Research Description: Dr. Vicky Bungay and Dr. Shahin Kassam (postdoctoral fellow at Capacity) will be embarking on grant applications this summer to support a community co-led project focused on food insecurity and healthcare access among women living in northern BC.
Women in the north are among those most severely affected by food insecurity; a situation exacerbated by the intersecting structural disadvantages operating in our society including racism, poverty, sexism, and gender-based violence. Currently, community-service organizations are the primary establishments seeking to provide in-person and innovative solutions among women to stem the impact of food insecurity and related health concerns. Yet, little research has been done to examine how such organizations operate, or the social, economic, and institutional factors that enhance or diminish their capacity to serve. Additionally, as these organizations are a critical point of entry and referral for important health services among women, there is an urgent need for research in this field. In the proposed project, and in partnership with Skeena Diversity Society - a community leader in women’s health and wellbeing in Terrace, British Columbia (BC) - we aim to examine how novel and inclusive food-security programs in Northern BC operate to foster food security, promote health, and serve as pivotal access points of entry into the primary health care system.
Role of the Student: Mentored by Drs. Bungay and Kassam, the student will assist with all aspects of a community-based research project application including working with community partners, conducting relevant literature reviews, and creating supporting grant application documents as required. This project will provide an opportunity for the student to learn more about community engaged and partnered research approaches and methodologies, to work with community partners and Nursing academics, and to gain experience on health research related grant application processes. Located at the Capacity Research Centre, the student will work alongside research staff and Nursing graduate students.
Advancing AI-Driven Virtual Reality Simulations in Nurse Practitioner Education: System Architecture and Development Documentation
Research Description: Clinical decision-making, diagnostic reasoning, and communication skills are essential competencies for Nurse Practitioner (NP) students. However, traditional training methods often face limitations, including inconsistent clinical exposure, difficulty in standardizing learning experiences and lack of immediate feedback. This project addresses these gaps by developing an AI-driven Virtual Reality (VR) simulation designed to provide NP students with realistic, interactive patient encounters that align with Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) standards.
A key component of this initiative is the development of a structured technical manuscript detailing the system architecture and AI integration within the VR simulation. This documentation is essential for ensuring transparency in the tool’s development, facilitating future iterations, and contributing to the broader field of AI-driven healthcare education. The manuscript will describe the integration of large language models (LLMs) for real-time, adaptive patient interactions, the platform’s natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, and the user experience (UX) design considerations, specifically in the context of the tool the faculty supervisor has developed at UBC.
The research aims to:
• Provide a detailed, peer-reviewed account of the system’s architecture to contribute to nursing informatics and AI-driven simulation literature.
• Enhance the accessibility of advanced simulation-based learning for NP students, ensuring equitable and standardized training opportunities.
• Support the long-term sustainability and adoption of the VR simulation within the NP curriculum.
The student selected for this role will assist in the development of the technical manuscript by gathering information through interviews with the development team, conducting a supporting literature review, and structuring the paper according to best practices in system architecture reporting. The project aligns with UBC’s strategic focus on educational innovation and will contribute to knowledge translation in AI-driven healthcare education.
Role of the Student: The student will play an essential role in supporting the documentation and dissemination of the AI-driven VR simulation’s technical framework. Under supervision from Ashley Scott, they will:
• Conduct interviews with the development team to gather detailed insights into the system’s architecture, functionality, and AI integration.
• Perform a literature review on similar AI-driven simulation technologies to contextualize the manuscript within existing research.
• Identify and adapt an appropriate reporting template for system architecture documentation.
• Assist in drafting and structuring the technical manuscript, ensuring clarity and adherence to publication standards.
• Receive mentorship on research writing and academic dissemination strategies.
This role is ideal for a student with an interest in nursing informatics, health technology, or AI applications in education. The project will provide valuable experience in research writing, interdisciplinary collaboration, and emerging healthcare technologies.