One of York’s esteemed faculty members has been selected by the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) for inclusion in its “150 Nurses for Canada” campaign.
Elsabeth Jensen, associate professor in the Faculty of Health’s School of Nursing and director of the York-CAMH Collaborative, was named in the campaign that highlights those who pioneer health innovation in Canada in recognition of Canada’s Confederation.
“It is an amazing award, as it is from my national professional association,” said Jensen. “There are not many national awards in nursing, making this recognition of my professional work very special. This is my second national award and is just as humbling as the first time.”
Actively involved with nursing organizations for 44 years, Jensen has held many positions on the local, provincial and national scales. In addition to being a researcher, she has promoted the development of nursing research chairs and has become a leader in mental health. She was also a founding member of the Clinical Nurse Specialist Association of Canada and its first Ontario board representative.
“Our entire Faculty is delighted by Elsabeth’s award,” said Faculty of Health Dean Paul McDonald. “She’s been a driving force behind a positive collaboration between York and the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health. It’s gratifying to have another one of our exceptional faculty members recognized for their academic and professional leadership.”
Jensen has been on 26 funded research projects representing more than $911,000 in funding grants. She was involved with the SSHRC-CURA project that led to the creation of a new housing initiative, a restructuring of homelessness services in London, Ont., and new policies regarding hospital discharges to “no fixed address.” More recently, she led a team in the first Canadian evaluation of a community-based model of discharge service. Implementation of the model resulted in a 40 per cent reduction in the readmission rate in an acute care mental health program.
Currently, she is exploring predictors of success in nurse practitioner graduate studies. Her areas of research expertise include mental health, childhood abuse, trauma screening, housing, discharge models, program evaluation and knowledge translation.
She has authored 16 book chapters, 22 peer-reviewed papers, three technical reports and co-edited Homelessness, Housing and Mental Health: Finding Truths – Creating Change with Dr. Cheryl Forchuk and Dr. Rick Csiernik.
She has given eight invited addresses and presented 53 papers at conferences all over the globe.