Louise Rose

Dr. Louise Rose Receives CIHR New Investigator Award to Improve Care for Patients on Mechanical Ventilation

8 August 2013

Providing valuable research on the patient care needed for those requiring mechanical ventilation, Bloomberg Nursing Associate Professor, Dr. Louise Rose has received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) New Investigator Award to continue her work in this burgeoning field.  Dr. Rose’s research plan on Understanding prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) and long-term mechanical ventilation (LTMV) will work to improve the experience of patients with long term respiratory failure and create strategies to prevent associated complications of mechanical ventilation and weaning.  Recognizing the outstanding contributions Dr. Rose’s research has provided, this important career development award allows her to dedicate additional time toward her plan.

“Those requiring mechanical ventilation are some of the most vulnerable, fragile patients in the community and currently there just isn’t enough support for them to negotiate the challenges during transition across the continuum of care,” says Dr. Rose who previously held the inaugural Bloomberg Limited-Tenure Professorship in Critical Care Nursing.  “A CIHR New Investigator Award gives me the chance to focus on creating better health outcomes for this population at the clinical and policy level.”

Mechanical ventilation is a complex intervention used in intensive care units (ICUs) to support patients with breathing difficulties.  Although an essential life-sustaining measure, mechanical ventilation is associated with numerous health complications if a patient is kept on a breathing machine for an unnecessarily prolonged amount of time.

This research program has two primary foci, Understanding PMV/LTMV in Canada will address the numbers, needs and profiles of people, what the current healthcare system is providing and where the gaps are in care.  Focus One of the program will: 1) foster better health outcomes and quality of life; 2) inform decision makers, researchers and clinicians; 3) generate a vision of optimal transition across the continuum of care; 4) foster knowledge translation; 5) encourage coordinated, focused data collection and 6) increase use of current best practices.  Focus Two will clarify what works, for whom and in what circumstances when weaning from ventilation.  This will facilitate the adoption of appropriate weaning strategies and help prevent the consequences of protracted ventilation.

“Survey data from the research program has just come in, the first of its kind on prolonged mechanical ventilation in Canada, and provides us with the opportunity to identify best practices,” says Dr. Rose.  “There is quite a bit of work that can be done to get these practices implemented in ICUs across Canada and the time to start is now.”