Gabrielle Deveau & Shelby Thomas

For Gabrielle Deveau and Shelby Thomas, the Western Regional School of Nursing was a place to explore research, practice, and the interconnections between the two.

As students, this activity ranges from research for class papers to research activity aimed at understanding practical clinical settings.

Through their papers, Thomas and Deveau have been able to explore topics such as the lack of medical resources in Indigenous and rural communities, while at the same time coming to understand the role of research in setting best practice policies at larger medical institutions.

In addition, students have the responsibility of understanding their clients’ medical histories prior to their shifts, and must  research their patients' records and conditions before going on clinical shifts.

"With every clinical rotation that you do, there’s a requirement that each student has to find a current research article that was done by nurses, for nurses, relevant to any topic that was relevant to what you learned on the floor," said Deveau.

A frequent theme in her group, she explained, was diabetic foot ulcers, a common phenomenon.

"One student found an article that showed the difference between patients that were doing little foot exercises for diabetic foot ulcers, versus those who had diabetic foot ulcers but weren’t doing the exercises, how extreme the healing processes were, and how much those movements helped their feet," she said.

This research approach not only helps the students to assist with care, but broadens their medical knowledge - they identify new techniques and practices through studying specific cases.