Lianne Jeffs Headshot

Lianne Jeffs Appointed Chair in Nursing Research

5 April 2013

St. Michael’s Hospital and the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing are pleased to announce that Dr. Lianne Jeffs, a nurse and researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital, has been appointed the St. Michael’s Hospital Volunteer Association Chair in Nursing Research (Limited Term).

Raising funds for this prestigious chair was a focus of the 2011 St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation Gala. At that time, the St. Michael’s Hospital Volunteer Association generously contributed to make this chair possible.  Ella Ferris, executive vice-president, programs and chief nursing and health discipline executive said, “funding for this chair will support a new and innovative program of research that integrates knowledge translation, patient safety and quality improvement to enable evidence-based nursing and inter-professional patient care, locally and globally.”

“My vision for the St. Michael’s Hospital Volunteer Association Term Chair in Nursing Research is to advance science and improve the quality of care by developing, implementing and evaluating theory and evidence based strategies to accelerate knowledge to practice in the areas of patient safety and quality improvement,” said Dr. Jeffs, a rising star in the fields of patient safety, quality improvement and knowledge translation. “The chair will enable us to address key priority quality and safety issues associated with care transitions across the health care system and using performance data to drive quality care.”

Three key activities that the chair will focus on are: 1) providing national and international leadership in the study of patient safety and quality improvement; 2) mentoring students and translating knowledge to professional nurses on evidence-based approaches to providing quality, safe patient care; and 3) building partnerships with key stakeholders to develop knowledge dissemination activities that mobilize research findings from this program of research into practice settings.

“This exciting new chair confirms the leadership of St. Michael’s Hospital in patient safety research, and testifies to the important role nurses play in preventing complications and errors for patients,” said Dr. Sioban Nelson, dean and professor, University of Toronto’s Faculty of Nursing. “The program of research that Dr. Jeffs will develop as chair will have a major impact on patient care far beyond St. Michael’s.  The Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing welcomes Dr. Jeffs to this important new role and looks forward to the opportunities the chair will bring for our students and trainees.”

Dr. Jeffs was recruited to St. Michael’s Hospital in 2005 to serve as the director of Nursing Research and was appointed a scientist with the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute in 2008. Since October 2005, her key academic accomplishments include a proven track record in securing peer-reviewed grants, publishing in peer-reviewed journals and holding an Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care Early Nursing Research Career Award from 2009-2012. Under her leadership at St. Michael’s Hospital, the Nursing Research Advancing Practice Program, a research capacity strategy for clinical staff nurses was created. For this work, Dr. Jeffs was named the Canadian Institutes of Health Research –Institute of Health Services and Policy Research Rising Star Award in May 2010.

In addition to her position as a Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute research scientist, Dr. Jeffs is also the scientific director of the Nursing Health Services Research Unit and an assistant professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg, Faculty of Nursing University of Toronto.

The chair is for a five-year term that began on April 1 and is a joint appointment between St. Michael’s Hospital and Lawrence Bloomberg, Faculty of Nursing University of Toronto.

“It is an honour to be named the St. Michael’s Hospital Volunteer Association Term Chair in Nursing Research at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto,” Dr. Jeffs said. “I am deeply grateful to St. Michael’s Hospital Volunteer Association, St. Michael’s Foundation and the senior leadership at the hospital, whose generosity and efforts made the chair a reality.”