Lindsay Jibb an assistant professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, is one of eight nursing leaders to receive the 2024 Council of Ontario Universities Programs in Nursing’s (COUPN) Scholarship into Practice Award, in recognition of her innovative program of research which explores digital solutions to pediatric cancer pain and quality of life for children and their caregivers.
The award, which was presented in April 2024, celebrates excellence in nursing research and further recognizes the contributions of the recipients to nursing education and the broader nursing community.
Jibb, who holds the Signy Hildur Eaton Chair in Pediatric Nursing Research and is a scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), is focused on improving the psychosocial health of children and adolescents with cancer, seeking to better understand their pain and stress, as well as co-design digital solutions to provide them and their families with an ability to self-manage their pain.
“My goal is to help alleviate the burden of cancer pain on children and their families, helping them receive quality pain management that improves their well-being,” says Jibb. “It is an honour to be given this award and have the important work that nursing researchers do be recognized.”
Jibb currently leads a CIHR funded, pan-Canadian study that involves a co-designed app called Pain Squad, which enables adolescents to self-manage their cancer pain. The app which is available to download from the Google App Store, consists of a pain diary that acts as a game. Patients are able to keep track of their pain, record its intensity, and what they did to the manage the pain.
She is also leading the co-design of a new digital app called PainCaRe, which aims to support parents and caregivers of young children with cancer. This app includes a library of pharmacological advice as well as advice for psychological and physical symptoms children may be experiencing. It also includes a chat option that connects parents with a nurse in hospital, allowing them to ask questions and seek nurse-led clinical pain support for their child when needed.
“Digital apps like PainCaRE and Pain Squad, help to create a sense of autonomy for both the patients and their families, providing them with a plan to help self-manage pain and feel a sense of control when they are outside of hospital settings,” says Jibb. “We have seen in our study consultations with patients and parents alike, that this improves well-being and reduces stress.”
“Jibb is an expert in the field of child health, and her research working to directly impact and improve the lives of children with cancer makes her an exceptional model nursing scholarship, and well-deserving of this award,” says Kelly Metcalfe, associate dean of research and external relations at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.
In addition to designing new technologies, Jibb is also dedicated to ensuring her research scholarship can be implemented successfully into practice. She partners with staff nurses, NP’s and nurse case managers to ensure the digital health solutions she creates can be implemented into routine oncology practice.
At SickKids she leads the Nursing Research Internship Initiative, a group that engages clinical nurses in research and supports knowledge translation into practice, while she is also the co-Chair of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) Pain Assessment and Management Practice Guideline Development Panel, that also focuses on translating research into practice particularly related to pain and distress of children with cancer.
Her ongoing research continues to build capacity connecting patients with care through technology and supports the interests of children and their families, as she aims to reshape the future of cancer care, patient outcomes, and pain management.