Fleming College has been awarded $357,033 by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), in collaboration with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The funding is provided through the College and Community Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF), one of the main grant types under the tri-agency College and Community Innovation (CCI) program.
The grant will fund a three-year applied research project aimed at improving nurse well-being at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) through structured resilience training. The funding announcement was made on October 31 by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
The project is led by Fleming College faculty members Jill Henderson, MN, RN; Wendy Morgan, MA-Ed, MA-CP; and Melissa Sherrer, MN, RN, from Fleming's School of Health and Community Services. They are joined by Dr. Michael Ungar, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience at Dalhousie University.
"The nursing workforce in Canada faces severe challenges with devastating rates of burnout and projected shortages," said Dr. Theresa Knott, Acting Co-President, Fleming College. "A recent poll from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions reports 40 per cent of nurses intend to leave the profession within the next year. This funding will help address these workforce pressures and strengthen the future of health care in Ontario and across the country."
The CCSIF-funded project builds on a successful pilot study led by Henderson and Morgan, previously funded by NSERC. In that study, the duo delivered resilience training to fourth-semester students in Fleming's Practical Nursing program. Their research demonstrated clear benefits: participants reported improvements in overall mental health, increased self-awareness, better emotional regulation, and greater confidence in managing stress. Many also valued the group-based support.
With this new funding, the research team will adapt and expand their resilience training model to support nurses at PRHC and study the impact of the training over time. The goal is to support nurses' psychological well-being, reduce burnout, and strengthen job satisfaction, which are all factors that play a critical role in improving retention and patient care outcomes. The study offers a scalable training model to shape best practices in nurse support provincially and nationally.
"Fleming College is proud to support the well-being of nurses already in the field through this important new resilience training," continued Dr. Knott. "While we remain committed to preparing career-ready nurses through our academic programs, this applied research project allows us to make a direct, meaningful impact on those currently serving in our healthcare system. It's a response to real needs in our community."
The project will also provide paid research opportunities for students from Fleming's School of Health and Community Services.
