{"id":1643,"date":"2025-06-12T09:51:37","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T14:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/?p=1643"},"modified":"2025-06-16T09:20:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T14:20:48","slug":"apn-conference-focuses-on-harm-reduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/apn-conference-focuses-on-harm-reduction\/","title":{"rendered":"APN conference focuses on harm reduction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Conference speakers Emily Phillips, Dr. Em Pijl and Kirst Muller (missing: Jesse Lamoureux, who presented virtually)<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Graduate Nursing Students\u2019 Association at the University of Manitoba hosted its 15th Annual Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) Conference on March 19, 2025, at the Helen Glass Centre for Nursing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference highlighted the work of four advanced practice nurses and their experiences with harm reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirsty Muller is an Ojibwe registered nurse and nurse case manager of an opioid agonist therapy program through the Four Arrows Regional Health Authority. She is the first registered nurse to serve as Manitoba\u2019s regional director for the Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine. She also holds board and consultant roles that enable her to advocate for people with addictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muller spoke about several harm reduction projects she\u2019s been involved in, including being part of a team that opened Canada\u2019s first Indigenous-led Rapid Access to Addictions Medicine clinic in Winnipeg in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hold a lot of different roles, but most importantly, I do like to acknowledge that I am someone with lived experience as a daughter who lost my mom to a toxic drug poisoning in 2018, while she was living in Alberta. After that, I started my practice and focused more on addictions, and that became what I call my \u2018heart medicine,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Em Pijl is an assistant professor at the College of Nursing. She has published studies in journals such as Harm Reduction Journal<\/em> and Canadian Journal of Public Health<\/em> documenting the value of supervised consumption services. She spoke about harm reduction in the clinical context, including her research that aims to understand the views of those who are opposed to supervised consumption sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe evidence for harm reduction is just unequivocal that it helps people and that it saves lives. For some people, it\u2019s just not translating,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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(L to R): Committe members Folakemi Adesanya, Naomi Armah, Ariel Wilcox and Abbie Kawadza (missing: Eunice Assem-Erhaze) <\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Emily Phillips is a master of nursing graduate from the College of Nursing. In 2023, she was awarded the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and is a doctoral student in the applied health sciences program. She is also a clinical nurse specialist at St. Boniface Hospital, which is the first hospital in the province to have a harm reduction statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2023, her paper on integrating harm reduction into acute care was published in JTCVS Open<\/em>. She noted that the Health Sciences Centre used the paper to base its harm reduction program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesse Lamoureux, a nurse practitioner with the Interlake-Easter Regional Health Authority, spoke virtually from his home in Pine Falls, where he runs a private practice. He has a master\u2019s degree from the College of Nursing and discussed the nurse practitioner\u2019s role in harm reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all nurses, and humanism is a strong core in the philosophy of nursing. We need to respect autonomy, respect the individual, and view ourselves as health consultants for that individual and not a paternalistic way of saying \u2018you do this,\u2019\u201d Lamoureux said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event was offered in-person and virtually, and over $220 was raised for the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naomi Armah, a PhD candidate in the College of Nursing and one of the co-chairs for the APN conference, said the conference provided insight into the roles of various advanced practice nurses in the field of harm reduction, harm reduction approaches and evidence-based research on the topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery individual deserves a chance to be supported in achieving holistic health. I believe the conference empowered nurses to understand the intersectional realities of harm reduction and employ a non-judgmental approach to help minimize the harm and promote quality of life,\u201d Armah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Graduate Nursing Students\u2019 Association at the University of Manitoba hosted its 15th Annual Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) Conference on March 19, 2025, at the Helen Glass Centre for Nursing. The conference highlighted the work of four advanced practice nurses and their experiences with harm reduction. Kirsty Muller is an Ojibwe registered nurse and nurse…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1643"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.radyfhs.umanitoba.ca\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}