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Originally from Cambridge, Ontario, Kaela Trumble is a Dal BSc Kinesiology and Certificate in Disability Management grad who is currently enrolled in the School’s MSc Rehabilitation Research program. Kaela’s supervisor is Dr. Kehler and her research interest focuses on health problems during aging and how they relate to cardiovascular disease. I had the pleasure of interviewing Kaela about her research student journey.

If you had asked Kaela Trumble at the beginning of her undergraduate program what she'd be doing after completing her degree, the response would certainly not have been to go into a graduate research program. During her final undergrad year, Kaela decided to join a friend who was visiting her great uncle, who had a kitten. (Kaela, I learned, loves kittens). The great uncle's name was Dr. James Orr, a biochemist who talked passionately about his research. His research views changed how Kaela looked at her current work in long-term care and inspired her to take her passion for working with seniors into research in that area. From there, she chose the research-based MSc RR Physiotherapy program. Dal because she enjoyed her undergraduate experience at Dal and the School of Physiotherapy because of the knowledge and expertise provided by geriatrics faculty researchers.

Now, in the MRcRR program, Kaela's research interests focus on how people accumulate health problems as they age and how they relate to cardiovascular disease. Specifically, she is looking at frailty trajectories (frailty changes over time), how cardiovascular disease might affect this, and how frailty might affect cardiovascular disease. She will be using the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), so she will be able to investigate these changes and interactions for a specifically Canadian population, which she is very excited about. Kaela says she was motivated in this area, as frailty research was fascinating and wanted to work specifically with the geriatric population. Still, she also really liked the idea of doing longitudinal research. To Kaela, "Epidemiological long-term research feels like looking into the future, even if you are using past data, as it can give us ideas about how health changes and see those most at risk for poor health outcomes. Also, since cardiovascular disease is so prevalent and affects so many people, especially my population of interest, it seemed the perfect research area for me. "Kaela's hope with research is to find ways or give information to improve people's health and quality of life, especially seniors.

As Kaela investigated supervisor options, she was delighted to discover that Dr. Scott Kehler's research aligns well with her own research goals. "He was very supportive in helping me find a research project I knew I'd be excited about," Kaela explains. "I liked that a lot of his work focuses on physical activity as a preventative treatment for frailty since, at the time, I was working as a physiotherapy assistant in long-term care and was able to notice the impact it had during my everyday work. Promoting healthy aging is a large aspect of his research that I connect with, and I am excited to have his guidance as I work through the research process!"

Conference and Competition Presentations
A significant milestone in any researcher's journey is the first time to formally present your research at a conference. Kaela had that opportunity recently at the Crossroads Conference held here in Halifax. Crossroads is an Interdisciplinary Health Research Conference hosted by the Graduate Student Society of Dalhousie's School of Health and Human Performance. Being at a nationwide peer-reviewed academic conference made Kaela quite nervous. Still, once she started talking about her research, she was excited to share and chat with other health researchers about the different aspects of her research. "My favourite part of attending the conference was learning about all the other health research going on at Dalhousie and across the country from many students completing their master's and PhD's," Kaela says.

But Kaela didn't stop there; she rolled right into the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) competition and secured a 3rd place win! The 3MT is a competition that brings together the Dalhousie community to give graduate student researchers a platform to share and celebrate their ideas and compete for cash prizes. The competitors of this competition have three minutes to present their research engagingly to a non-specialist audience, with only one PowerPoint slide permitted as a visual aid. Kaela shared that she had a wonderful experience at the 3MT and appreciated the effort the whole 3MT team and the Writing Centre put in. Kaela was the second last person in her heat, "I was practicing a paragraph of my speech since I was so scared of forgetting once I got up in front of people! When I was selected to advance to the finals, it was such a confidence boost in my public speaking and presentation abilities."

Kaela's topic was the differences in how people develop health problems related to heart disease as they age. "This was demonstrated by Millie, Joan, and Norma (featured on my slide) who were all 85 years young yet had very different levels of health and quality of life. I also talk about how some people, like Millie, develop health problems more slowly and some more quickly, like Norma, despite being the same age. Something I highlighted at the beginning and end of my speech, which is a staggering fact, is that one person in Canada dies every 5 minutes from heart disease, showing the utmost importance of research in this area for Canadians." Kaela's takeaway from this competition was how to communicate her research quickly without using research jargon to describe it. She found it to be a difficult task at the beginning, but after this competition, she has more confidence in her public speaking, and finds she can discuss her research with family and friends in a more engaging manner.

I asked Kaela what advice she would give to someone considering a research-based PT program at Dal. Her response was "to make connections with the other people, both in your year and those who are a year ahead/finished the program. I was lucky enough in the summer before to be connected with a student who had just finished their first year of the MScRR program, and she was so great at answering my questions and connecting me with others in the program. It can be daunting to start a research-based master's, so talking to others who have been through what you are going through is comforting. Also, making friends with those starting simultaneously as you are super important - to bounce ideas off of, share different opportunities, and have that extra support! If you are new to Halifax, there is so much to do and see, so having friends in the program to explore with makes it much more fun!"
 
What's next for Kaela?
 
She has applied to the Combined MscRR/PT program at Dal and has her fingers crossed for an acceptance! "It would be great to have the practical knowledge/certification to apply my research to a physiotherapy practice. I have also been enjoying my time doing research so much. After continuing research frailty, I am highly considering a PhD in health to find ways to help Canadians age in better health, hopefully." With her love of working with people in a healthcare setting, her future career will likely include researching ways to improve the health of Canadians while also participating in a hands-on physiotherapy practice to help those in her community and promote the benefits of exercise for healthy aging.