Rachel Flynn Faculty of Nursing
Evaluating the sustainability of research-based products used to improve child health
Every year billions of taxpayer dollars are invested in research-based products—tools (resource to assess pain), interventions (handwashing), or products (printed guide to asthma)—to improve child healthcare, but little research is done on how to sustain the use of these products.
Flynn’s research examines both why and how improvements made to child health are continued long term in healthcare settings, and how these improvements impact the health of children. Her research will help ensure that the money spent on these research-based products is warranted, and if they are effective, can be maintained and spread to other child health settings.
This project will increase understanding around products currently in use and evaluate and measure their sustainability. A framework will be piloted and tested across hospitals that are currently using these products to improve areas of child health (e.g. infant pain assessment and management).
Flynn’s fellowship will provide the necessary evidence for further research on the impact and reasons why research implemented into child healthcare settings, such as the Stollery Children’s Hospital, becomes sustained and embedded in practice.
This fellowship has been funded by the generous support of the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation through the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute.
