nursingforsocialjustice

On November 6, 2025, I had the privilege of attending the inaugural Province Health Care Centre for Research Training for Nursing and Allied Health (CREST) conference. Participating in this important day for both nurses and allied health left my spirit thoroughly bathed in some much needed optimism, hope, and excitement for the future of nursing-driven (planned, executed and evaluated) practice-based research in BC. Do I work at PHC? No I don’t. Am I inspired to forge a similar path forward for the Health Organization I work for? Yes I am.  

Let’s take a step back. If you’re not deeply familiar with PHC, allow a brief (and sparkly) detour through its story. PHC was officially formed in 2000, but its roots stretch back through epidemics, pandemics, economic depressions, and two world wars. St. Paul’s Hospital (SPH), founded in 1894 by the Sisters of Providence, makes up 80 percent of PHC, and its legacy is steeped in a heritage of Catholic health care and a shared belief in “providence,” invisible, protective care that shapes and strengthens.¹ The social fabric of Vancouver holds threads from those early Sisters, who were rebels in their own right, probably respectfully accepting but also rebelling against all reasonable advice, to follow a vision to serve the city’s most vulnerable from the moment SPH opened its doors.​²

The “Handmaiden” Era: Reluctant Roots and Bold Shifts

To understand the resonance of nursing research today, you have to revisit those first decades at SPH. In 1907, the School of Nursing opened its doors to a handful of young women (this was exclusive to women which was consistent for that era) whose main professional requirements, according to the day, were obedience and stamina. Close your eyes and put yourself in Vancouver at the turn of the century. Imagine the sort of grit that was needed to outlast hand-washed linens, 16-hour shifts, and all the city’s mud. If you can’t imagine then scroll through a comprehensive history of SPH.³⁴⁵ As the 1900s happened, those “handmaidens” shifted the profession’s center of gravity. These nurses didn’t just carry out doctors’ orders; they began to shape the care environment itself, advocating for better practices, patient dignity, and fresh approaches to clinical challenges.​

From Ward to Whiteboard: Nursing as Knowledge Work

By the 1950s and into the 1990s, the collective contributions of nurses at what would become PHC had shifted from silent service to scholarly inquiry in practice.⁶ This era saw nurses at SPH and Holy Family Hospital developing and evaluating new models for patient rehabilitation, creating teaching resources, and championing quality improvement long before these became healthcare buzzwords. Nurse educators in the 1960s and 70s crafted curriculum reform and led the way toward the shift to baccalaureate education, often grounding their proposals in both scholarship and lived experience.​

Inside the bustling hospital corridors, there were always nurses thinking several steps ahead: innovating in wound care, leading infection control audits, and refining pain management. In the 1980s and 90s, with the rise of HIV/AIDS, SPH emerged as a national leader in both care and research for marginalized, often stigmatized, patient communities. Here, nurses led not just at the bedside but in the design and execution of research studies that generated new evidence and transformed protocols. Amazing nurses like Irene Goldstone help lead this. ​

Nurse-driven research wasn’t just about big, multi-centre grants, it was about practice wisdom, an understanding of the power of observation and inquiry, and a willingness to rethink everything from how beds were assigned to how loneliness and pain were understood. The echoes of these early inquiries formed the backbone for later, more formal research programs.

CREST and a New Chapter in Nursing Scholarship

That commitment to evolving knowledge now has a new home at the PHC Centre for Research Training for Nursing and Allied Health (CREST), built in a joint effort between nursing and allied health professionals.⁷ At the inaugural CREST conference I could feel the positive energy throughout the day, amongst clinicians, educators, and researchers collaboratively engaging with organization and program leaders. At the heart and head of this was the belief in building a research culture from direct patient care up. CREST’s mandate? To strengthen research capacity among point-of-care nurses and allied health professionals by investing deeply in training, mentorship, and opportunity. Here the “missing middle” is being tackled head-on: research-active clinicians are being encouraged to stay at the bedside, empowered to ask their own research questions and systematically improve care.​

At this inaugural gathering, there was open acknowledgment of the value of clinically grounded scholarship, the sort that grows out of direct patient care, not despite it. The goal? A research community that refuses to divide practice from knowledge production, and instead celebrates their dynamic interplay.

Innovation, Collaboration, and a Permanent Sense of Mission

The move of St. Paul’s Hospital to its new False Creek Flats campus, scheduled for completion in 2027, will give physical form to these new ambitions.⁸ Planning documents exude the ambition for clinician-driven, collaborative research and continuous learning: space for multidisciplinary research, simulation labs; hubs for digital and bioengineering tech, and real-world “sandboxes” for implementation science. Providence Research’s vision, coordinated with new technologies and cross-disciplinary skill, lays the foundation for the next century, a future not just forecasted but purposefully built with nurses at the helm, who continue to hold the spirit of the plucky nuns from 1907, relentlessness working to improve patient care outcomes.​

One can feel the brush of history at every turn. The spirit that animated those courageous Sisters of Providence, who made the trip west in 1894, now stirs up the research teams leading innovative practice-based research, like conceptualizing artificial intelligence in care delivery, virtual reality in simulation, and endeavour to have patient engagement in every aspect of system redesign.⁹ No matter how advanced the technology, the philosophy is constant: compassionate care for all, especially the most vulnerable. What a concept. 

The Enduring Legacy

Standing within the walls of St. Paul’s Hospital for this first conference carried a certain weight. Knowing it would also be one of the last gatherings held in the old building stirred feelings of nostalgia (and dare I write a quiet fear that its magic might somehow be bound to the legacy of its bricks and mortar), the halls that have for more than 100 years have been filled with a teams devoted to service.¹⁰

But SPH’s legacy has never lived in the walls alone. It endures in the stories, studies, and sparks of innovation shared from nurse to nurse, generation to generation. Through CREST, PHC reaffirms a timeless truth: that every nurse at the bedside holds the power to transform care through inquiry, scholarship, and, above all, steadfast curiosity. See it. Think it. Be it. 

So here’s to those who came before, those leading now, and those just beginning to ask their first research questions. The work isn’t finished (it never is), but the future has never felt more promising, or more deeply rooted in a proud, research-driven history. And, in my heart I know this will be a hard fought battle to build something comparable (or maybe even collaboratively…) within the health organization I work in. But I look to those rebel nuns and rebel nurses that have persevered and built a legacy to push me forward. 

References 

1. Providence Health Care. Our history [Internet]. Vancouver: Providence Health Care; 2024 Jan 31 [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from: https://www.providencehealthcare.org/en/our-mission/our-history
2. Providence Health Care Archives & Museum. St. Paul’s Hospital: A Proud Tradition of Compassionate Care. Vancouver: Providence Health Care Archives; 2012 Jun [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from: https://www.chac.ca/documents/57/Vancouver_St_Pauls_100th.pdf
3. British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives. Celebrating the evolution of nursing regulation in BC [Internet]. Vancouver: BCCNM; [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from: https://www.bccnm.ca
4. Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia. Nursing Memorial Book [Internet]. Vancouver: RNABC; 1972 May 25 [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from: https://www.nnpbc.com
5. St. Paul’s Foundation. St. Paul’s Hospital’s 125 year history of teaching [Internet]. Vancouver: St. Paul’s Foundation; [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from: https://helpstpauls.com
6. University of British Columbia Library. Provincial public health nursing in British Columbia from 1939 to 1959 [Internet]. Vancouver: UBC Library; 2010 Aug 23 [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from: https://open.library.ubc.ca
7. Providence Health Care. PHC CREST | Providence Health Care [Internet]. Vancouver: Providence Health Care; 2025 Aug 18 [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from: https://www.providencehealthcare.org
8. New St. Paul’s Hospital. Research | New St. Paul’s Hospital [Internet]. Vancouver: The New St. Paul’s Hospital; 2025 Apr 30 [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from: https://thenewstpauls.ca
9. BC History of Nursing Group. History of Nursing News [Internet]. Vancouver: BC History of Nursing Group; 2022 Nov 25 [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from:https://bcnursinghistory.ca
10. BC History of Nursing Group. BC History of Nursing Group (1990-2009) [Internet]. Vancouver: BC History of Nursing Group; 2024 Oct 31 [cited 2025 Nov 9]. Available from: https://bcnursinghistory.ca