Themes:

Health Education

The theme - Education - is related to post-secondary education and professional development in areas such as in community health nursing and/or primary health care. 

Research Funding

Patient/Caregiver Engagement in Community-Based Research on Older Adults

The overall goal of the project is to investigate the most effective way to use the existing strengths of a community to design community-based health-related programming, and to measure the impact...

 Completed

 June 2016-December 2017

Co-Primary Investigator

Contributing to, and Learning from, the Lives of Older Adults: Practical learning experiences in the care of older adults as trained community volunteers for health care

Health TAPESTRY (Health Teams Advancing Patient Experience: Strengthening Quality) is a community-based approach, centered in primary care, which aims to promote optimal aging through four...

 Active

 2016-2017

Co-Primary Investigator

Scholarly Work

Canadian Centre for Advanced Practice Nursing Research (CCAPNR) Faculty Member

CCAPNR involves a group of multi-disciplinary, university-based researchers dedicated to creating new solutions for problems that challenge health and social services through the use of new models of care and evaluation. The team engages in research and professional education activities to address CCAPNR goals.

 Active

Committees

Deputy Director, World health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario) for Primary Care and Health Human Resource

Since 2009, Dr. Ruta Valaitis has been a Deputy Director, World health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario) for Primary Care and Health Human Resources. Dr. Valaitis was elected Secretary to the Pan American Nursing and Midwifery Collaborating Centres Network (PANNMCC) and served in that role from 2011 to 2013.

 Active

Committees

Health in the Hubs

The McMaster University School of Nursing (SON) is dedicated to improving the health of residents in our local communities and fulfilling the School’s mission of community engaged scholarship.

 Active

Projects

A Questionnaire for Assessing Community Health Nurses’ Learning Needs

This article reports on the development and psychometric testing of a learning needs assessment questionnaire related to the Canadian community health nursing Standards of practice.

 Completed

Articles

An Online Toolkit to Support Public Health and Primary Care Collaboration

The aim of this toolkit is to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes that support the development and maintenance of successful collaborations between primary care and public health. This toolkit is for practitioners, managers, policy makers, and students from a variety of disciplines working in primary care and public health.

 Completed

Projects

Community Health Nurses’ Learning Needs in Relation to the Canadian Community Health Nursing Standards of Practice: Results from a Canadian survey

Canadian Community health nurses (CHNs) work in diverse urban, rural, and remote settings such as: public health units/departments, home health, community health facilities, family practices, and other community-based settings.

 Completed

Articles

Computers and the Internet: Tools for youth empowerment

Youth are often disenfranchised in their communities and may feel they have little voice. Since computers are an important aspect of youth culture, they may offer solutions to increasing youth participation in communities. This study involved public health nurses to support the school-based community development project.

 Completed

Articles

Enabling Youth Participation in School-based Computer-supported Community Development

Schools are a main setting for health promotion for youth. A one year qualitative case study was undertaken in an inner-city, Canadian school. It explored factors that enabled and constrained youth in the process of a school-based computer-supported community development (CD) project. This paper reports on Dr. Ruta Valaitis' PhD thesis results.

 Completed

Articles

Invited Faculty for Canadian Institutes of Health Research - IHSPR-IPPH Primary Health Care Summer Institute.

The Summer Institute is aimed at graduate students from across Canada.

 Completed

Committees

Member of the Advisory Committee Orientation: Transition Program for Nurses New to Public Health

From 2006 - 2009, Dr. Ruta Valaitis was a member of the Advisory Committee for the design and development of an Orientation Program for new nurses transitioning into public health careers.

 Completed

Committees

Member of the Canadian Nursing Association’s Nursing Portal Project- Evidenced Based Practice Sub-group

During 2005 - 2006, Dr. Ruta Valaits was a member of the Canadian Nursing Association’s Nursing Portal Project- Evidenced Based Practice (EBP) Sub-group.

 Completed

Committees

Member of the CASN Education Subcommittee for Public Health

From 2004 to 2012, Dr. Ruta Valaitis was a member of the CASN Subcommittee for Public Health.

 Completed

Committees

Member of the Working Group: Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC): Professional Education Working Group- Vaccine Prevention

From 2006 - 2009, Dr. Ruta Valaits was a member of the Working Group: Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC): Professional Education Working Group- Vaccine Prevention

 Completed

Committees

Nurse Faculty Perceptions of Simulation Use in Nursing Education

In this study nursing faculty perceptions of the implementation of simulation in schools of nursing across Ontario, Canada, were explored using the Q-methodology technique. Building on her secondary interest in the use of appropriate technologies (a principle of primary health care), this work was conducted during Dr. Valaitis' short term role as the Director of Learning Technologies for the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University.

 Completed

Articles

Optimization of home care nurses in Canada: A scoping review

Nurses are among the largest providers of home care services thus optimisation of this workforce can positively influence client outcomes. This scoping review maps existing Canadian literature on factors influencing the optimisation of home care nurses (HCNs).

 Completed

Articles

Partners in research: building academic-practice partnerships to educate and mentor advanced practice nurses

Given the push for health care reform and quality improvement (QI), health care administrators are seeking new ways to utilize all dimensions of APN expertise, especially related to research and evidence-based practice. The purpose of the paper is to describe an academic-clinical partnership to improve patient care by strengthening the capacity of advanced practice nurses to integrate research and evidence-based practice activities into their day-to-day practice.

 Completed

Articles

Phase 2: Strengthening the Quality of Community Health Nursing Practice: A Pan Canadian Survey of Community Health Nurses’ Continuing Education Needs Study

The purpose of this second phase of the study was to identify current practice activities of CHNs across all Canadian Provinces and Territories and to measure their continuing education needs in relation to the CCHN Standards.

 Completed

Reports

Pragmatists, Positive Communicators and Shy Enthusiasts: Three viewpoints on web conferencing in health sciences education

Building on Dr. Valaitis' secondary interest in the use of appropriate technologies (a principle of primary health care), this work was conducted during her short term role as the Director of Learning Technologies for the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University.

 Completed

Articles

Preparing the Community Health Nursing Workforce: Internal and External Enablers and Challenges Influencing Undergraduate Nursing Programs in Canada

The Canadian Schools of Nursing (CASN) Task Force on Public Health was mandated to facilitate Schools of Nursing to provide students with the foundation required to meet the Canadian Community Health Nursing Standards of Practice. As a member of this Task Force Dr. Valaitis led this paper which reports on an environmental scan that explored barriers and enablers influencing the integration of community health nursing content in baccalaureate education in Canada.

 Completed

Articles

Primary Health Care and Nursing Education in the 21st Century: A discussion paper

Report to the WHO, Series Number 16, March 2009. Primary health care (PHC) is a philosophy and an educational practice approach. Nursing is one of the key services for the delivery of PHC. The purpose of this background paper is to examine PHC education for nurses in the globalized world.

 Completed

Reports

Problem-based Learning Online: Perceptions of health science students

This qualitative study explored health sciences students' perceptions of their experiences in online problem based learning (PBL) and focused on their views about learning and group process in the online environment. Building on her secondary interest in the use of appropriate technologies (a principle of primary health care), this work was conducted during Dr. Valaitis' short term role as the Director of Learning Technologies for the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University.

 Completed

Articles

Public Health Nurses’ Perceptions of Mobile Computing in a School Program

The use of mobile computing in healthcare practice has grown substantially in recent years, yet little is known about its impact.This descriptive, exploratory, qualitative study explored the perceptions of public health nurses (PHNs) in a school health program about their use of mobile computing.

 Completed

Articles

Representative for Canadian Association for Schools of Nursing (CASN) at a National Summit for Ontario Health Information Highway

In 2002, Dr. Valaitis was a representative for CASN at the National Summit for Ontario Health Information Highway. This conference was related to health Informatics and held at the University of Victoria, British Columbia.

 Completed

Committees

Simulated Experiences: Nursing students share their perspectives

This study explored nursing students' viewpoints about the use of simulation in their nursing programs. This work was conducted during Dr. Valaitis' short term as the Director of Learning Technologies for the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University.

 Completed

Articles

Stop, Look and Listen: An interactive guide to working with communities

This was a CD-ROM program designed to teach community health nursing students and other professionals about the process of community action. It focused on the principles of primary health care, community assessment and community development. Child pedestrian injury prevention was the main issue addressed in this programme

 Completed

Projects

Street Smarts ↔ Book Smarts: Three Neighborhoods and One University School of Nursing Partnering for Health

This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an interdisciplinary undergraduate course embedded within a campus–community partnership initiative involving McMaster University School of Nursing, and three urban priority neighborhoods in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The experiential course focuses on building knowledge and skills in community participation and community improvements for health and continues to be offered today. This primary health care collaboration between the campus and three Hamilton neighbourhoods was led by Dr. Valaitis and supported by the Health in the Hubs team.

 Completed

Articles

Tailoring Online Health Promotion: A Toolkit for Communities

Tailoring Online Health Promotion: A Toolkit for Communities: This toolkit was produced based on our experience and evaluation of working with public health staff and youth in a rural community to build a health promotion website for youth by youth.

 Completed

Projects

Tailoring Online Health Promotion: A Toolkit for Communities

Tailoring Online Health Promotion: A Toolkit for Communities has been produced to share our learning and experiences in working to build a health promotion web site (www.youthspark.ca) to meet local needs by and for rural youth in Huron County, Ontario Canada. The Toolkit is loosely organized according to the phases of project development that we experienced in the YouthSpark project.

 Completed

Reports

Students

Picture Name Degree Ruta's Role Thesis Topic More Info
Dr. Judy Burgess Dr. Judy Burgess Post-Doctoral Fellow Co-Supervisor A Tool to Evaluate Interprofessional Teams in Primary Care More Info.
Dr. Rebecca Ganann Dr. Rebecca Ganann Post-Doctoral Fellow Co-Supervisor Integrated knowledge exchange with knowledge users in community-based interventions involving extensive patient and caregiver engagement in the community More Info.
Beata Penrice Beata Penrice MScN Supervisor Nurse Managers as Project Managers: A Gap Analysis of Competencies More Info.
Sally Binks Sally Binks MScN Supervisor A Comparison of Nurses’ Similarity Judgments at Two Points in the Novice-Expert Continuum More Info.
Mary Guise Mary Guise PhD Supervisor Computer-mediated-conferencing: support for preceptors of senior nursing students More Info.
Anita Stern Anita Stern PhD Supervisor The Complexity of Family Caregiving: Use and Perceptions of Home Telehealth in Palliative Cancer Care More Info.
Erin Ziegler Erin Ziegler PhD Supervisor LGBT populations and access to primary care More Info.