Canada and India: An Innovative Partnership to Advance Oncology Nursing Research

Abstract

Cancer care nursing research is at a very promising juncture in the history of the field. This is a result, in part, of the unprecedented availability of funding for research, continuing education, clinical training, and, more recently, well-funded research training opportunities for nurses interested in pursuing graduate work in oncology nursing. Canada and India have been at the forefront of establishing two well-articulated research programs to train the next generation of clinician-researchers in the area of psychosocial oncology. The initiatives have been particularly timely because wide access to information technology allows the transcendence of time and geographic boundaries to bring relevant stakeholders together to advance the science and practice of oncology nursing. The purpose of this article is to review the specific research training activities (a core videoconferenced evidence-based seminar; periodic virtual, interactive brainstorming sessions; and yearly face-to-face workshops) of the programs in terms of core themes and pragmatic issues associated with their delivery across the various national and international training sites. Strategies are presented to ensure that research training activities can be replicated across other clinical sites, institutions, and countries. This article hopefully will inspire other researchers to develop similar transdiscipinary research training programs toward a strong research and mentoring tradition within nursing and across relevant psychosocial oncology fields.