Research Projects
RESEARCH PROJECTS
1. The Impact of COVID-19 on cross-border nurses' mental health
In collaboration with Dr. Dana Menard (Principal Investigator; Department of Psychology), and Drs. Jody Ralph and Laurie Freeman (Faculty of Nursing), we are examining the mental health and well-being of nurses working on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, in Windsor, Ontario, and in Detroit, Michigan. Our goals were to 1) assess the longitudinal impact of COVID-19 on the mental health and well-being of nurses as the pandemic transitions from initial crisis management, persistent epidemic management, and epidemic recovery by collecting both qualitative (interviews) and quantitative data on stress, coping, and mental health outcomes; 2) support local hospitals in augmenting current workplace practices and community-based programming to aid in the recovery and resilience of front-line responders, and 3) provide guidance for prevention and preparedness policies related to mental health and future public health crises in hospitals.
We recently finished analyzing qualitative data from waves 1 and 2 of our study, and are now re-interviewing participants one year later (May, 2021) to gain more insight into what their past year has been like. We also collected additional data on the mental health and well-being (and support use) of 650 hospital employees in our region (see infographic), and continue to connect and engage with our local hospitals to support hospital employees. (see our recent papers under our Recent Publications tab.
We also received CIHR funding for a new project (2022-2024):
Laying the groundwork for improved psychological preparedness and adaptation of Canadian nurses working during healthcare crises: Simulated training to improve resiliency of nursing groups (STRONG).
For more information about this project, please click: https://cancovid.ca/grant/laying-the-groundwork-for-improved-psychological-preparedness-and-adaptation-of-canadian-nurses-working-during-healthcare-crises-simulated-training-to-improve-resiliency-of-nursing-groups-strong/
Please email Dr. Menard (Dana.Menard@uwindsor.ca) or myself (ksoucie@uwindsor.ca) if you have any questions.
2. COVID-19 Return to Campus Initiative: Screening Platform
To facilitate our safe return to campus, we have expanded on funded initiatives to create a COVID-19 detection platform for our campus community. Led by Drs. Lisa Porter, Yufeng Tong, Mike McKay, and Kendall Soucie, this multidisciplinary team of researchers are expanding COVID-19 screening through saliva testing and wastewater monitoring. Testing numbers and data trends are communicated to the public through an interactive dashboard on the WE Spark Health Institute website.
For more information about this project, and how our lab is assisting return to campus initiatives, please visit:
