Department of Nursing – Dr.Cyndi Gilmer
2 Minutes and 18 seconds
[Banner statingDr. Gilmer’sname and department is splashed across the bottom]
CYNDI GILMER:So my name is Cyndi Gilmer, I'm faculty in the Trent school of nursingalso am the program coordinator for the compressed program of students.
My mostcurrent research is my research onhomelessness. The project is called homelessness to home and it is an action researchproject that's looking at really listening to the stories of peoplecurrently homeless or have been homeless in the last year, allowing them to telltheir stories and tell us what kinds of things would make life easier for them,what kinds of things they need,what have been barriers to them find housing.We're talking about some of the disadvantages to the system currentlyand some of the hard things about finding housing. The biggest thing for me is tolearn that stereotypes of people who are homeless are inaccuratethat no one event can cause somebodyteeter over the edge and not have a place to live, that there isn't a typicalperson with homeless, that there areall kinds of peoplethat you know, on the surface you would think well how could they possibly be homeless? They have a university degree,they've got family, they've had this, they've had that and yet they are living homeless.Usually its one small event that's happened that's really tipped them over the edge.That face of urban homelessness is the one that we seeand I think that from the literature that we have and the ideas that we'restarting to develop through researchit's only a tip of the iceberg of the number of people that are living homeless in Canada.
In nursing we always talk about the connection between theory and practice,that practice is based on theory and theorysprings from practice and that's a cycle that we work with all the time and so research likethis and the kind of research, nursing research, is important to maintain that cycle.We certainly have a problem in Canada with homelessness,we know that andwe have no idea how deep it is,so I think it's important that this kind of research helps to inform that sothat we can really get a handle on it.Be able to make a difference and change the problems that we have.
Cindy Gilmer Trentresearch matters
[Trent Logo appears on screen and outro music plays]