AC Nursing faculty, learners publish research in peer-reviewed nursing journal

Posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2025

Faculty and learners have published research in Quality Advancement in Nursing Education – Avancées en formation infirmière (QANE-AFI), an open-access journal. The publication, titled Identifying Priorities for Pre-licensure Nursing Curriculum to Care for People with IDD, reflects several years of work which included Algonquin College students and support from the Applied Research Office, with funding provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Research has identified that student nurses often receive inadequate, if any, education about caring for People with intellectual disabilities, within their pre-licensure nursing education, resulting in nurses who are often unprepared to care for this population.

A cross-faculty team was formed at Algonquin College, including professors Anna Don, Laura Rogal-Black, Mary Ann Murray, Helena Merriam, Ben Carrol, and Susan Eldred with Janet McCabe from Ontario Tech University, together with Algonquin College student research assistants Sushma Chowdhury, Selam Gessese, Jarrod Mclean, Kimberley Zappavigna, Olena Cajmer, Angela Peters, Jack Barkley and Shahd Abou Sharkh. The team conducted a scoping review to thoroughly map research studies, discussion papers and reflective notes documenting pre-licensure nursing education about caring for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), internationally. Many topic themes were identified that student nurses learned about caring for people with IDD, but it was unclear if these topics were actual priorities for nursing education or simply lessons learned opportunistically. Further, the voices of people with IDD were largely absent from the research about nursing curriculum development and delivery about this topic.

Nursing Studies Professor Anna Don applied for and received an operating grant from the Applied Research Institute in Fall 2023 to complete a study with the objective of identifying priorities for pre-licensure nursing curriculum about caring for people with IDD by surveying them and nursing personnel who often care for this population. Together with student nurse research assistants Sushma Chowdhury, Selam Gessese, Jarrod Mclean, Kimberley Zappavigna and research advisors Daniel Kennedy and Amber Rathwell, Anna Don collaborated with agency partner OCAPDD/Open Hands in the design of this study. They conducted a three round Delphi survey study and identified 34 content priorities for pre-licensure nursing curriculum about caring for people with IDD. A pre-licensure nurse educator toolkit incorporating these priorities is currently in development.

The research team would like to give special thanks to Louise Boudreault and the Algonquin College REB for their consultation support and time spent reviewing our REB application. They are grateful for the guidance provided by Kevin Holmes, the project manager and the ARI accounting team. The ARI grant provided funding for student research assistant and research advisor work and purchasing of study tools.

The Delphi study group received the Research Achievement Award for their poster presentation from Applied Research Institute in April 2025.


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