Dr. Lorraine Thirsk
Assistant Professor

Contact
- Email: lthirsk@athabascau.ca
- Phone: 1-866-979-0231
Education
- PhD: University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta (Family Systems Nursing)
- MN: University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta (Family Systems Nursing)
- BScN: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta (with distinction)
Scholarship and Research Interests
- Family nursing interventions and outcomes in a variety of adult populations (serious, life-limiting/life-threatening illness)
- Nurses’ judgment and decision-making; influence of cognitive bias
- Therapeutic conversations
- Organizational influences on nursing practice
- Mechanisms of complex interventions
Teaching and Learning Interests
- Family nursing
- Philosophy and theory of nursing
- Research methodology
Recent Publications
Dewart, G., Corcoran, L., Thirsk, L., & Petrovic, K. (2020). Nursing education in a pandemic: Academic challenges in response to COVID-19. Nurse Education Today, 92, 104471. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2020.104471
Thirsk, L.M., & Clark, A.M. (2017). Using Qualitative Research for Complex Interventions: The Contributions of Hermeneutics. International Journal of Qualitative Methodology, 16, 1-10.
Clark, A. M., Wiens, K. S., Banner, D., Kryworuchko, J., Thirsk, L., McLean, L., & Currie, K. (2016). A systematic review of the main mechanisms of heart failure disease management interventions. Heart, 102(9), 707-711.
Clark, A.M., Thirsk, L.M., Wiens, K.S., Ski, C.F., Thompson, D.R. (2015). How to research the mechanisms of non-pharmacological cardiac interventions. International Journal of Cardiology.
Thirsk, L.M., Moore, S.G., & Keyko, K. (2014). Influences on clinical reasoning in family and psychosocial interventions in nursing practice with patients and their families living with chronic kidney disease. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 00 (0), 000–000. doi: 10.1111/jan.12370
Thirsk, L.M., & Clark, A.M. (2013). What is the ‘self’ in chronic disease self-management. International Journal of Nursing Studies. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2013.10.008
Thirsk, L.M., & Moules, N.J. (2013). “I Can Just Be Me”: Advanced Practice Nursing with Families Experiencing Grief. Journal of Family Nursing, 19(1), 74-98. doi: 10.1177/1074840712471445
Clark, A.M., Briffa, T., Thirsk, L., Neubeck, L., Redfern, J., (2012). What football teaches about how to research complex health interventions. British Medical Journal, 345, e8316. doi: 10.1136/bmj.e8316
Thirsk, L.M., & Moules, N.J. (2012). Considerations for grief interventions: Eras of witnessing with families. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 65(7), 107-124. doi: 10.2190/OM.65.2.b
Moules, N., MacLeod, M., Thirsk, L., & Hanlon, N. (2010). “And then you’ll see her in the grocery store”: The working relationships of public health nurses and high priority families in northern Canadian communities. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 25, 327-334.