"The breadth of physical, social, and emotional changes that families and caregivers experience following childbirth create potential for this period to significantly alter the course of their long-term health. This motivates me to participate in strengthening health services for families and caregivers through research examining care delivery and health vulnerabilities, and the impacts of life transitions on health decision-making."
— Dr. Sarah Liva, Assistant Professor of Nursing
Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Liva, who was recently awarded the TWU Award for the Advancement of Nursing Knowledge for a two-year term (2021 – 2023). The purpose of the award is to provide scholarship that advances nursing knowledge and enriches the School of Nursing and TWU.
Dr. Liva's scholarly activity will build her program of research on women’s health perspectives, which focuses on:
- Postpartum health service needs
- The uptake of patient-centred measurement in maternal-child settings (with Dr. Angela Wolff and colleagues)
- Cardiovascular health messaging for postpartum and perimenopausal women.
These areas of focus stem from her recently completed doctoral dissertation (“Reconciling resistance: Women’s postpartum physical activity decision-making”, UBC 2018,) in which she found that women experienced a variety of physical concerns following childbirth, but had little access to services to support their physical recovery. Further, she found that health decisions were driven by the degree to which women identified them as supporting their basic psychological needs in daily life. For example, women who identified physical activity as supporting their sense of competence, autonomy, sense of self, well-being and capacity to care for themselves and others pursued physical activity, whereas women who did not pursue physical activity positioned other activities as supporting these needs. These findings align with emerging theoretical perspectives that stress the need for health promotion strategies to account for how women position their health in the context of daily life.
Dr. Liva says: "The breadth of physical, social, and emotional changes that families and caregivers experience following childbirth create potential for this period to significantly alter the course of their long-term health. This motivates me to participate in strengthening health services for families and caregivers through research examining care delivery and health vulnerabilities, and the impacts of life transitions on health decision-making."
The Award will support Dr. Liva's ability to secure additional external funding, and will support the School of Nursing to attract graduate students who are interested in women’s health. Dr. Liva's research is interdisciplinary and involves collaboration with TWU colleagues in Kinesiology, and with the Women’s Health Research Institute, a TWU community partner.
About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier Christian liberal arts university dedicated to equipping students to establish meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. It is a fully accredited research institution offering liberal arts and sciences, as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has five campuses and locations: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, Ottawa, and Bellingham, WA. TWU emphasizes academic excellence, research, and student engagement in a vital faith community committed to forming leaders to have a transformational impact on culture. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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