Nadine Janes, RN, PhD
Director, Undergraduate Program, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream
Dr. Nadine Janes’ nursing career began in 1984 when she enrolled in the BScN program at the Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto. Her continuous learning resulted in an MSc (1994), an ACNP graduate certificate (1998), and a PhD (2006) all from the University of Toronto. After more than thirty rewarding years acquiring expertise as a clinician, educator, scholar, and leader across healthcare sectors, she returned to the faculty in 2019.
As a practicing nurse (RN, CNS, NP) and later as a Director of Interprofessional Practice, Nadine focused primarily on the care of older persons. Her experiences in varied clinical settings led to her concerns about quality deficiencies in the care of this marginalized population. Nadine translated her concern into a program of research related to Knowledge Utilization in long-term care settings. Her springboard study was her doctoral work developing a theory of how unregulated care providers use knowledge about person-centered care in dementia practice settings. Her subsequent scholarly activities focused on exploring the complex entanglement of contextual, relational and individual factors that impact nurses’ and unregulated care providers’ abilities to do what they know they should, and ultimately want to do, in practice. This complexity reflects the proverbial black box between knowing and doing in healthcare practice that continues to perplex leaders across both clinical and academic settings.
As Undergraduate Program Director Nadine has turned her scholarly attention to the needs of students. Drawing on her understanding of the complexities between knowing and doing, she is exploring the full range of factors that impact nursing students’ abilities to reach their potential during their foundational studies and beyond.