Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

Navi Mental Health Wayfinder

Bonnie Stevens
RN, PhD

Professor Emerita

“With what we have learned from research on pain assessment and management, it is no longer tolerable to let children and infants suffer from needless pain and its consequences.”

Dr. Bonnie Stevens is a Professor Emeritus at the Lawrence S Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry. She is also the Associate Chief of Nursing Research and a Senior Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Dr. Stevens is the Chair of the Certification Committee for ChildKind International and a Fellow of both the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the American Academy of Nursing. She was the Director of the University of Toronto Centre for the Study of Pain from 2010 – 2019 and the Co-Director of the Centre for Pain Management at SickKids from 2008 – 2019. At U of T Nursing, Dr. Stevens will teach the doctoral course, Implementation Science in Health and Education, in the new Doctor of Nursing (DN) Program. Dr. Stevens held the inaugural Signy Hildur Eaton Chair in Paediatric Nursing Research, the first paediatric nursing research chair based in Canada until 2015. She was also the first nurse to be awarded the CIHR KT Prize in 2014.

Dr. Stevens focuses her research on the assessment and management of pain in hospitalized preterm newborn infants, and the effectiveness of knowledge translation (KT) strategies for changing clinical outcomes. She is the Principal Investigator of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Foundation Grant (2016-2023) that focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of a web-based 7 step resource for changing health care professional pain practices. The Foundation grant is a hybrid implementation design that involves conducting a large national trial and qualitative focus groups to determine the effectiveness of this e-health resource in improving child outcomes.

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  • Academic Credentials
    1993 – PhD, McGill University, Montreal
    1983 – MScN, University of Toronto
    1974 – BScN, McMaster University, Hamilton
  • Publications
    Dr. Stevens's PubMed link is available here.

PhD Students / Trainees

Shelly-Anne Li (In-Progress)
Organizational contextual features that influence the implementation of evidence-based practices in healthcare settings

A mixed methods design study describing organizational contextual factors that influence the implementation of evidence-based practices in healthcare settings
Shelly-Anne’s dissertation seeks to understand the perspectives of multiple groups of stakeholders on how organizational context influences the implementation of a multifaceted online knowledge translation KT intervention for reducing pain in hospitalized infants.

Emma Annan (In-Progress)
Immunization Pain in Infants in Africa

Emma’s dissertation aims to better understand immunization pain, and its prevention/ amelioration from the perspective of mothers and health care professionals. Various stakeholder perspectives on the WHO guidelines on managing immunization pain in infants is described.

Samah Hassan (Completed)
Knowledge assessment in chronic pain in adults

Samah completed her dissertation using a multi-faced design involving the development and assessment of the measurement of the PCAT tool, to assess pain knowledge in pre-licensure trainees.

Geraldine Coburn (Completed)
Pain Assessment and Management for Children with Multiple Injuries

Gerry Coburn conducted a retrospective chart audit looking for evidence of pain assessment and management practices in the pre-hospital and emergency department settings for children with non-life threatening multiple trauma. She conducted qualitative interviews with children who endured such a traumatic event as well as health care providers who provided care to them.

O’Brien Kyololo (Completed)
The Feasibility and Acceptability of Kangaroo Care (KC) and Facilitated Tucking (FT) as Neonatal Pain Management Strategies in Special Care Nurseries in Kenya

Optimal neonatal pain management in developing countries is often hampered by a lack of resources to procure analgesic drugs. The aim of O’Brien Kyololo’s project was to determine the feasibility in Kenya of using inexpensive, effective and safe mother-driven pain-management interventions in infants undergoing painful procedures. Brian also determined the acceptability of KC and FT to parents and health care professionals in Kenyan settings

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