Left to Right: Paisly Symenuk, Marie Andree Chassé (adjudicator),Sharan Sidhu, Dr. Pauline Paul (adjudicator), Andreea Mohora, Oluwakemi Amodu, Marnie Colborne, Dr. Jude Spiers (facilitator)
It can be difficult enough to summarize an entire research project, especially if you only have 180 seconds to do so.
It's a daunting task that five undergraduate and graduate nursing students attempted on February 11, at the inaugural Faculty of Nursing 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.
As an academic competition 3MT helps students develop effective presentation and communication skills. As the name suggests, participants have three minutes to explain the breadth and significance of their research project to a non-specialist audience.
This year, participants' presentations covered a wide range of topics, including; social injustice with respect to bullying in undergraduate nursing programs, obstetric fistulas, gender-based violence in Africa, ageism in acute care, and the struggle faced by elite athletes to reshape their identities after their Olympic careers end.
"Trying to summarize the entirety of a research project or proposal in just 180 seconds is a challenge, but our contestants accomplished it with poise and passion," said Jude Spiers, facilitator of the Faculty of Nursing 3MT competition. "The winners of the competition succeeded by engaging the audience and leaving them interested about the project as well as the topic in general."
The top three graduate student presentations in the Faculty of Nursing 3MT competition automatically advance to the University of Alberta's semi-final competition, which will be hosted March 7-11 by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.
Although it was a difficult decision, the event adjudicators-Dr. Pauline Paul, Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Marie-Andree Chasse, a representative from the community of nursing practice-would like to congratulate the three winners: Sharan Sidhu, Paisly Symenuk and Andreea Mohora.
Both Sharan and Paisly are in their third year of the BScN Honors Program and tied for first place. They presented on bullying in undergraduate nursing curricula and gender based violence in Zambia, respectively. Doctoral student Andreea Mohara took second place with her presentation on elite athletes.
For additional information on all University of Alberta 3MT competitions, please FGSR website.
Developed by the University of Queensland in 2008, 3MT is now held in 19 countries around the world. As of 2015, over 139 universities from Sweden to Columbia, Japan to Iran have participated in this fun, highly informative and very entertaining event.