Training the next generation of nurses: leveraging science to elevate the future of care

The MHI’s Nursing Research Lab was founded in 2001 by Sylvie Cossette and has been headed by Patrick Lavoie and Tanya Mailhot since 2018. Its goal is to evaluate and develop innovative nursing approaches that tangibly improve the quality of life of patients and their family members. The work carried out at the Lab can be divided into three broad categories: preventing, detecting, and managing post-procedure cardiac complications; providing support throughout the patient journey; and training the next generation of cardiac critical care nurses. 

“A nurse may make between 700 and 1,200 decisions during an eight-hour shift,” said Patrick Lavoie, co-director of the Lab and associate professor at Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Nursing. “And each of these decisions has the potential to positively impact the patient’s journey. The underlying goal is to explore ways of training future nurses to ensure they’re able to properly identify indicators, perform accurate assessments, and take the most appropriate actions in high-stress situations.” 

In 2025, Patrick Lavoie was awarded the very first Canada Research Chair in Decision-Making and Nursing Education, a national distinction that affirms the research program's status as one of the most unique in the country. 

The Lab’s approach leverages oculometrics, a technology that can track what a person is focusing on in real time. Participants wear glasses equipped with a camera and eye sensors that record what they are looking at, in what order, and for how long to the nearest millisecond. 

When used in CPR training, this approach highlighted significant differences between novice caregivers and experienced ones. The former tend to focus on the immediate task at hand while experienced caregivers always maintain a constant high-level view of a situation. These eye-opening results will be used to improve training activities. 

Breaking new ground is nothing new for the team at the Lab. In fact, they recently published a graphic novel titled “Sang d’encre”, a publication born from a research project on decision-making in cardiac surgical critical care. It illustrates roughly 40 anecdotes from nursing staff and weaves them into a unique, cohesive tale that captures the reality of the profession with quasi-documentary precision. 

“The idea was to highlight the role nurses play and to show what really happens behind closed doors,” said Patrick Lavoie. “The general public rarely has access to this side of a hospital environment. There are still a lot of people who believe a nurse’s job simply entails drawing blood. But there’s so much more involved and that’s what we wanted to illustrate.” 

Why a graphic novel? In addition to being an accessible piece of work, it provided the authors a certain artistic liberty that photography doesn’t allow. For instance, the characters are depicted as animals to protect the privacy of patients and professionals while allowing the authors to bring to life complex situations through nuanced storytelling. News about the graphic novel was quickly picked up by the media, with national outlets, which speaks to the impact of the publication. 

These transformative projects were made possible thanks to the MHI Foundation which was also able to finance two research coordination positions, held by two doctoral students in nursing. Their contributions were instrumental in the lab's activities. 

The lab’s renown continues to grow. In 2024 and 2025, the team published 27 scientific articles, presented their work in 34 national and international conferences, and were invited to be guest speakers six times. 

In an increasingly tech-driven environment, one where AI and other novel technologies are transforming clinical practices at a dizzying pace, Patrick Lavoie maintains a realistic outlook. He firmly believes that technology will remain but another tool in a professional’s toolbox. “My mission is to always put the patient first,” he said. Because at the end of the day, what patients remember the most is the person who took the time to listen to them, to provide comfort. The Nursing Research Lab aims to preserve this relational dimension of the profession by training nurses who are able to balance scientific rigour and human-centric care.