USask Nursing Alumnus Receives Canada’s Top Doctoral Scholarship
Nursing alumnus Steven Hall is the recipient of the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
University of Saskatchewan (USask) alumnus Steven Hall (BSc’18, BSN’20, MN’23) completed his USask Bachelor of Science degree in 2018, Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in 2020, and Master of Nursing (MN) in 2023. After finishing his MN at USask, he continued his graduate nursing education at the University of Alberta, where he is currently pursuing a PhD.
His contributions to nursing research and planned project for his doctoral program have earned him a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. The coveted scholarship is Canada’s top award for doctoral students, valued at $150,000 ($50,000 per year for three years) and is jointly administered by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The scholarship is named after Major-General Georges P Vanier, the first francophone Governor General of Canada, and recipients are selected based on academic excellence, research potential, and leadership.
Hall is a registered nurse with a clinical background in general internal medicine and is certified by the Canadian Nurses Association in the specialty of medical-surgical nursing. His research focuses on enhancing the quality of care older adults and their caregivers receive when accessing health and social systems. His doctoral work involves developing a tool to facilitate communication between nurses and caregivers of older adults living with dementia.
Hall taught in the USask BSN program as a clinical instructor for three years before moving to Edmonton to continue his studies. Now, he is working as a lecturer in the University of Alberta’s undergraduate nursing program. His tenacity also landed him a position serving on the editorial board for the peer-reviewed journal, Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice.
Hall’s thesis work during his MN program at USask, “The Saskatchewan Caregiver Experience Study,” has resulted in six peer-reviewed publications. He was supervised in his MN by College of Nursing Associate Professor Dr. Noelle Rohatinsky (PhD). His committee members were College of Nursing Professor Dr. Shelley Peacock (PhD) and Emeritus Professor Dr. Lorraine Holtslander (PhD). All six published manuscripts have been co-authored by his MN committee.
- Caregivers to older adults require support: A scoping review of their priorities.
- Mapping the Caregiver Experience in a Canadian Province: Research Methodology for the Saskatchewan Caregiver Experience Study.
- Challenges Reported by Family and Friend Caregivers to Older Adults in the Saskatchewan Caregiver Experience Study.
- Positive Aspects of Caregiving from the Saskatchewan Caregiver Experience Study.
- The Saskatchewan Caregiver Experience Study: Support Priorities of Caregivers of Older Adults.
- Considerations in Recruiting Caregivers of Older Adults to Qualitative Internet-Mediated Research Using Facebook and Meta Business Suite.
Congratulations Steven on this scholarship and outstanding work. We look forward to seeing what you continue to accomplish during your doctoral studies.
The University of Saskatchewan College of Nursing is proud to call you an alumnus and wish to thank you for the great work you are doing. You are a registered nurse the world needs – true to the USask motto.