The Council of Ontario University Programs in Nursing (COUPN) have named Lisa Cranley, an associate professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, as the 2025 recipient of the COUPN Scholarship into Practice Award.
This award given out annually, recognizes Cranley’s exemplary contributions to nursing research and improvements in quality health care delivered to older adults in long-term care (LTC) settings.
“Receiving this award is a real honour, and demonstrates the impact of nurse-led research as well as the urgent need to focus on older adults and the quality of care they receive in LTC homes,” says Cranley. “It is my hope that we will continue to develop new models of care in the LTC sector as our population steadily ages.”
Cranley’s program of research has aimed to address some of the complex challenges facing LTC care, particularly communication between LTC providers, residents, and their family caregivers. Framing her research around a person-centered approach to care, Cranley has developed a series of interventions, tools, and resources that enhance communication in LTC and supports resident and family involvement in care.
With funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Cranley co-developed a Huddle tool, a paper-based communication resource designed to support resident and family-led care planning huddles in LTC. Using a set of five guiding questions, the huddle tool helps lead conversations around resident care planning and establishes a way for residents and their families to express their needs and preferences with staff.
“This is the underpinning of compassionate and person-centered care for older adults. We need to put residents at the centre of how care is provided.” says Cranley.
The tool is currently available as a free online e-health resource, but Cranley is looking to further enhance the tool, iteratively co-designing it into a digitally accessible app with funding from the AMS Healthcare Compassion and Artificial Intelligence Research Fellowship.
The goal, Cranley says, is to allow family caregivers of residents to provide input remotely whether because they live far away from where their loved one is housed, or due to a future pandemic. By co-designing the app with residents, family caregivers and staff, Cranley is hoping to further build these relationships, while maintaining a residents’ sense of autonomy and voice in their care provision.
“We hope this will support an effective way of communicating a resident’s needs on an ongoing basis, such as if they want a change made to their morning care, for example,” adds Cranley.
“Professor Cranley’s remarkable contributions make her a highly deserving recipient of the COUPN Scholarship into Practice Award. Her unwavering commitment to improving the lives of older Canadians is evident through her extensive work in gerontological, and nursing policy research, practice, and education,” says Kelly Metcalfe, Associate Dean of Research and External Relations at Bloomberg Nursing.
Understanding the impacts of COVID19 on LTC care providers and residents has made Cranley’s expertise highly sought after as a co-investigator on several multi-disciplinary research teams. She has also proven instrumental in developing the next generation of nursing researchers, serving as a supervisor to both PhD and Doctor of Nursing students at Bloomberg Nursing.
In addition to serving on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, Cranley is also a board member of the Sigma Theta Tau (STTI) Lambda Pi at-Large Chapter, and she is also the co-Chair of Canadian Network for Nurse Researchers in Aging.