Ruth Martin Misener
DOPN (1986) BScN (1992)
MN (2000)
Focused on primary health care
Ruth Martin-Misener’s career has been focused on primary health care. After practicing in the Canadian North she was invited to return to Dalhousie School of Nursing to teach in the Outpost Nursing Program from which she received her diploma in 1986. The Dalhousie Outpost Nursing Program (DOPN) was, essentially, Canada’s first nurse practitioner (NP) program and in the late 1990s Martin-Misener played a key role in transitioning the DOPN to a Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner (NP) Program.
Key player in Nurse Practitioner role
Dr. Martin-Misener has been a key player in the development and implementation of the NP role in Nova Scotia and nationally. She has worked closely with the College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia to develop NP regulatory policies and processes and was a central figure in the Strengthening Primary Care Initiative in Nova Scotia, and the Canadian Nurse Practitioner Initiative.
Funded research
After completing her PhD at the University of Calgary in 2006, Martin-Misener completed a strategic fellowship in TUTOR-PHC, a CIHR-funded training initiative that aims to build a critical mass of researchers through student and faculty development and increase interdisciplinary focus in primary health care research.
In 2009 she was invited to join the TUTOR-PHC team as a co-investigator and mentor. Dr. Martin-Misener’s research has focused on the implementation and evaluation of multi-disciplinary innovative models of care in primary and long-term care - for example, the rural primary health care delivered collaboratively by NPs, paramedics and family physicians on Long and Briar Islands.
Evolution in Nursing Research
Dr. Martin-Misener was profoundly influenced and inspired by Dr. Alba DiCenso’s research mentorship offered through her Advanced Practice Nursing Chair at McMaster University. When the Chair program ended, Martin-Misener played a key role in the evolution to the Canadian Center for Advanced Practice Nursing Research for which she now is co-Director. Over the past decade this group has been highly productive completing several influential studies including a CHSRF-commissioned Decision Support Synthesis on Clinical Nurse Specialists and Nurse Practitioners in Canada leading to a peer-reviewed special issue of Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership consisting of 10 papers and a systematic review of the cost effectiveness of advanced practice nurse roles. In recognition of her many contributions, she received a Centennial Award of Distinction from College of Registered Nurses of Nova Scotia in 2009.