Nursing adjunct named director of ACH PICU Research program

UCalgary Nursing adjunct clinical associate Laurie Lee, MN, NP was recently appointed director of Alberta Children's Hospital's PICU Research program where she will represent ACH in the Canadian Critical Care Trials group. Lee is the only nurse practitioner leading a paediatric critical care research program in Canada and has almost 20 years experience in the field, 10 of which have been in the NP role. She has a strong collaborative clinical practice as well as an active role in quality improvement, education, program development and clinical research.

“I am so excited to work with the many established researchers here in Calgary and nationally to grow my own research as well as the ACH PICU program,” she says. “In this role I will work with the people here at ACH who conduct research that involves critically ill children.

“As a nurse, I am extremely excited to ensure that all disciplines and professions are represented in pediatric critical care research," she continues. "Much of the research landscape has been dominated by physicians and though this is changing there is still much work to be done. I am hoping that by having a nurse as lead of this program it can inspire more clinicians who wouldn't traditionally consider participating in research to ask their clinical questions. I hope to work with my team of physicians and research nurses and coordinators to build a program that is able to facilitate research development by any clinician or patient that has a good question to ask and the motivation to answer it.”

Lee's program CHiCKS (Comfort Holding in Critically Ill Kids) has been endorsed by the Canadian Critical Care Trials group. It explores the effect of comfort holding on pain, agitation and delirium in critically ill children. Lee is also a member of PALISI (Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators) which is based in the United States.