UNB research group named Centre of Excellence by Joanna Briggs Collaboration
Author: UNB Newsroom
Posted on Oct 24, 2019
Category: UNB Saint John
The UNB Saint John Collaboration for Evidence-Informed Healthcare: A Joanna Briggs Institute Affiliated Group has been named a Centre of Excellence by the Joanna Briggs Collaboration international network.
The centre, housed in the department of nursing and health sciences on the Saint John campus, has a partnership with the Joanna Briggs Institute based out of the University of Adelaide, Australia. The Institute is a worldwide collaboration whose aim is to promote the synthesis, transfer, and utilization of best research evidence to improve healthcare outcomes globally.
“As one of 29 worldwide Centres of Excellence, our nursing faculty are engaged locally, nationally and internationally to promote evidence-informed approaches to the delivery of healthcare policies and practices,” says Dr. Lisa Keeping-Burke, director of the centre and associate dean of health research in the faculty. “Our local JBI Centre of Excellence is now established and recognized as a prestigious hub of expertise, through which high-quality systematic reviews of evidence are being conducted.”
The UNB Saint John Collaboration for Evidence-Informed Healthcare features 10 faculty researchers and a librarian from UNB Saint John, and two faculty from the Université de Moncton.
“Having a Centre of Excellence at UNB Saint John is exciting and allows for academic and clinical partnerships to develop and evolve,” says Dr. Keeping-Burke, who, as a certified JBI methodology trainer, offers yearly workshops and training on the UNB Saint John campus.
Faculty who lead the review teams typically have completed a weeklong training workshop on using the JBI methodological approach for synthesizing evidence. Other researchers with specific expertise or interests often collaborate with members of various review teams.
The Horizon Health Network has now officially joined the centre as a clinical partner in this growing initiative. Currently there are five systematic reviews underway and two other completed and published in the JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports. One review examined the experiences of nurses and patients with handover shift reports and another investigated nursing student experience with residential aged care facilities as learning environments.
The UNB Saint John Collaboration for Evidence-Informed Healthcare: A Joanna Briggs Centre of Excellence is the second of its kind in Atlantic Canada, with the other located at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Media contact: Kelsey Pye
Photo: Members of the UNB Saint John Collaboration for Evidence-Informed Healthcare. Back, left to right: Dr. Karen Furlong, Dr. Alison Luke, Emily Gregg, Dr. Dan Nagel, Dr. Lisa Keeping-Burke (Director), Alex Goudreau. Front, left to right: Dr. Chola Shamputa, Loretta Waycott, Dr. Rose McCloskey (Deputy Director). Credit: Emily Blaney/UNB.