Amber Bourgeois, a nurse practitioner in medical oncology at BC Cancer Victoria Center and PhD student in the School of Nursing at the University of Victoria (UVic) will join the Nursing and Allied Health Research and Knowledge Translation department on September 1, 2021 as a Health System Impact Fellow.
The Health System Impact Fellowship (HSIF) program gives PhD students and postdoctoral fellows on-the-job learning opportunities in health system organizations. The fellows bring their unique skillsets, new ideas and innovative approaches to help address real-world health system challenges.
During this research fellowship, Amber will be co-supervised by Dr. Leah Lambert, Executive Director for Nursing & Allied Health Research and Knowledge Translation at BC Cancer, and Dr. Kelli Stajduhar, professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Victoria, who’s programs of research focus on equity-oriented care for people living with cancer. This fellowship will provide Amber with opportunities to advance key methodological, theoretical and applied skills necessary for undertaking health services and policy research with an equity lens, and undergo formal training in knowledge translation. Amber’s research aims to explore the barriers to accessing cancer treatment and care for populations who are living with social disadvantage on the basis of structural inequalities.
Amber has been with BC Cancer since 2009. Prior to her role as a nurse practitioner in Victoria (2018), she spent the majority of her nursing career in Vancouver. She credits her interest in pursuing a doctorate after working closely with the breast cancer and lymphoma clinical trials groups at BC Cancer Vancouver as a clinical trials nurse. In this formative role, she witnessed the profound impact research can have on improving the quality of life for patients with a cancer diagnosis. Amber has worked internationally, in Australia in the clinical trials industry sector and as a senior clinical trials nurse in early drug development (phase I trials). Her robust clinical background and experience in large scale project management will undoubtedly be an asset in her future work to come.
We would also like to thank the leadership team at BC Cancer Victoria, Dr. Jason Hart, Executive Medical Director, Kelly Nystedt, Senior Executive Director, and Dr. Joanna Vergidis for supporting Amber to temporarily step away from her clinical duties to pursue this unparalleled opportunity.