Helping Worried Families

Lisa Knisley understands that knowledge is power, which is why she has devoted her career to putting clear, concise health-care information into the hands of families so they can make informed decisions — including when to take a sick child to the hospital and when to treat them at home. 

“All worried families in Canada should have easy access to the information they need to help them make decisions,” Knisley says. That information is not always as accessible to Indigenous families as it is for others because of the systemic racism and inequities created by centuries of colonization, Knisley says.

For her doctoral research, Knisley is working on a collaborative project with the Manitoba Métis Federation to ask Red River Métis families about their experiences looking for child health information and what they need.  

For the past 10 years, Knisley has tapped into her dual training as a nurse and as a communicator to work with TREKK, which makes videos, infographics, and other tools about pediatric emergency medicine topics, useful to both parents and clinicians. Some of these materials will be culturally adapted for Red River Métis families based on Knisley’s research findings. 

Making sure that patients and families have accessible, accurate and respectful health information isn’t just a nice thing to do, Knisley points out. It’s critical to health outcomes, affecting everything from whether patients understand how to take prescribed medications properly to whether they are willing to go to the hospital the next time they need emergency care. 

Knisley uses inclusive engagement practices to ensure families have their say. “How we carry out the research is as important as the research itself,” she says. As a European settler, she works closely with the Manitoba Métis Federation and Métis scholar Michelle Driedger to ensure the project is done in a good way and respects Red River Métis culture and knowledge. 

“Parents are the ones who are going to be making health-care decisions for their child,” says Knisley. “We need to empower them with knowledge and ensure we work with them to create information that is useful, meaningful and accessible.”

Read the full story "Big Care in Small Centres" in our Winter 2022 Alumni Magazine: https://issuu.com/uofanursing/docs/nursing_winter2022_v10.