Dr. Sears conducts an active program of research in health services with a focus on advancing quality care, reducing risk and improving patient safety. The majority of her work focuses on furthering the quality and safety of medication delivery. Dr. Sears explores the advancement of medication delivery in Canada and internationally including both the community and hospital settings for children and adults. Dr. Sears has experience working with large databases, quantitative methodology and intergrative studies using systemic review methodology. In 2020, she was named an Inaugural Richard Reznick Scholar to build an international certificate program in health quality.
Dr. Sears is an Associate Professor with Queen's School of Nursing. She has over twenty years' experience as a nurse, primarily focused in neonatal intensive care units. Throughout her teaching experience, Dr. Sears has been primarily involved in the area of quality and safety in healthcare. She is familiar with the e-learning environment, distance learning, virtual clinical excursions (VCEs) and simulation.
Research Interests
Quality of care and patient safety
Research in Progress
Improving the safe delivery of medications in community pharmacies. She has been awarded a CIHR Planning and Dissemination grant to bring together national and international leaders to develop a multiyear plan to work with provincial and national community pharmacy data. She is also planning a scoping review to look at current practices within pharmacies.
Research Network/Group Involvement
World Health Organization Global Patient Safety Network; Commission of Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education; Joanna Briggs Institute; Queen’s Nursing and Health Research; Safe Assured Collaboration; Reznick Scholars