Dr. Kris Smith is a Michael Smith Health Research BC-funded postdoctoral fellow with the Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health at the University of Victoria and a Clinical Ethicist with Vancouver Coastal Health. She completed her PhD in Kinesiology and Bioethics at the University of Toronto and brings over a decade of experience in ethnographic research. Her research focuses on ethics, relational ethics, health equity, cancer and palliative care, including studies on oncology care providers’ decision-making with structurally vulnerable populations and supporting marginalized older adults to die at home. She also uses arts-based approaches to support death literacy and share health equity research. In her clinical role, Dr. Smith supports patients, families, providers, and leaders in making transparent, compassionate, and just decisions that honours people’s highest values from birth to end-of-life. She leads ethics support in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, providing consultation and moral distress support grounded in relational ethics.

 
 

Selected Publications

  1. Smith, K., & Stajduhar, K. (2024). Using relational ethics to approach equity in palliative care. Journal of Palliative Care and Social Practice, 18, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1177/26323524241293820 

     

  2. Smith, K., Arbour-Nicitopoulos, K., & Widger, K. (2024). Parents’ experiences of waiting for their child’s transplant: A focus on how healthcare providers can impact the waiting process. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 0, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634593241281602 

     

  3. Smith, K., Widger, K., Arbour-Nicitopoulos, K., Gibson, B. E. (2023). The sensory experience of waiting for parents of children awaiting transplant: A narrative ethnography. Qualitative Health Research, 33 (8-9), 801-810. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323231182892

     

  4. Smith, K., & Atkinson, M. (2017). Avada Kedavra: Disenchantment, empathy, and leaving ethnography. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 5, 636-650. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2017.1354966 

     

  5. Alice Virani, Bethan Everett, Mojisola Adurogbangba, Esther Alonso-Prieto, Jillian Boerstler, Drew B. A. Clark, Jennifer A. Gibson, Kim Jameson, Tammy Molina, Monica McAlduff, Nina Preto, Alexandra Olmos Perez, Kristina Smith. Ethical analysis of prescribed safer supply policy in British Columbia: Final report and recommendations (pp. 62-96). In A Review of Prescribed Safer Supply Programs Across British Columbia: Recommendations for future action. Office of the Provincial Health Officer. 2023 Dec. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/about-bc-s-health-care-system/office-of-the-provincial-health-officer/reports-publications/special-reports/a-review-of-prescribed-safer-supply-programs-across-bc.pdf 

     
Affiliations
  • Postdoctoral fellow | Palliative Approaches to Care in Aging and Community Health | School of Nursing and Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health, University of Victoria (Michael Smith Health Research BC Research Trainee)
  • Ethicist | Vancouver Coastal Health 
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