“You may have personal experience, read a news article or even watched social media posts about women’s experiences with IUD insertions or biopsies, and their pain stories,” says Laura Kennedy (she/her) a postdoctoral researcher at IWK Health. “We want to flip the script and improve these experiences for women.”
Kennedy is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Health Systems Impact Fellow, a researcher who co-creates research projects that address issues or problems identified by the healthcare system. These projects or programs are designed with health system partners to support evidence-informed decision-making and improvements in care.
“My main project builds off the work already being done at the IWK to improve pain management for women,” says Kennedy. “Pain is a barrier to completing gynecological procedures and there are a lack of standards guiding treatment. The recommendations to assess and treat pain include assessing pain scores throughout procedures, administering medication, and using distraction techniques. Yet, there are challenges incorporating some of these recommendations into practice. We want to understand those barriers to implementing pain management interventions and develop implementation strategies tailored to different contexts.”
A Health Systems Impact Fellow uses their training, knowledge, and skills to augment the study of the Quintuple Aim, a concept that focuses on health equity; clinician well-being; and the pursuit of better health, improved outcomes, and lower costs.
An average day for Kennedy could involve reading and analyzing literature and evidence, designing data collection tools (e.g. surveys, interviews), writing grant proposals, conducting interviews, disseminating findings, and providing guidance on research methods or quality improvement projects to IWK Health staff or students/trainees.
Fellows are affiliated with an academic organization to facilitate collaborations between universities and healthcare organizations. Kennedy’s host organization is IWK Health, and her research institution is the School of Nursing at Dalhousie University.
“Healthcare providers are well positioned to identify gaps between knowledge and practice and are key to exploring barriers and facilitators in adapting knowledge to local contexts,” says Kennedy. “This work also includes the perspectives of healthcare providers in non-clinical roles, such as environmental services, ward clerks, managers, and administrators. Many aspects of improving pain begin before the patient meets the healthcare provider, such as when the patient is in the waiting room before the procedure starts. Providers in non-clinical roles have a significant impact on patient experience.”
Building off the exceptional efforts of the IWK’s Ambulatory Care Clinic and Women’s Health Program, this research will further the understanding of gender and sex-based approaches to pain management and patient safety.
“This work is situated within the gender health gap,” says Kennedy. “This gap continues to reveal differences in men’s and women’s health due to sex and gender. Part of the reason why the gender health gap persists is because of underfunding and the underrepresentation of women in research.”
Kennedy sees the findings of the Adult Comfort Promise evaluation as a potential resource for providers as they continue to be leaders in bridging knowledge-to-action gaps. These findings can be used to scale up and spread pain management interventions. They may also apply to other procedures or settings, such as primary care clinics or student health clinics.
“Providing pain care is essential to patient safety,” says Kennedy. “The IWK can lead in creating supportive environments for pain management for women’s health.”