Jennifer Stinson, Professor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, has been awarded the Order of Merit (Nurse Practitioner) from the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA). These awards honour excellence in clinical nursing practice.
Stinson, who is also a Senior Scientist in Child Health Evaluative Sciences at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), is recognized for her significant contributions to health care using evidence-based interventions, as well as her significant contributions to the status and public recognition of the nursing profession.
“This award recognizes my unique role as a nurse clinician scientist and how important these roles are in contributing to the sustained and positive impact on improving pediatric pain management and advancing the nursing profession through my roles as a clinician, scientist and educator,” says Stinson. “Receiving this award inspires me to continue to provide high quality clinical care and a robust program of research that directly informs and improves that care.”
Stinson’s work has long focused on chronic pain in children, and ways to improve it. Using digital interventions, she sets out to improve outcomes for young people living with pain. This has included the development of a mobile and web-based app called ICanCope, which provides young people living with sickle cell disease, the skills to self-manage their pain including personalized cognitive behavioural therapy-based coping mechanisms.
A unique component of Stinson’s research is her focus on co-design. Her other projects including Pain Squad, an app that uses gamification to helps kids track their cancer pain and iPeer2Peer, a virtual mentoring program that matches teens with young adults with the same condition, were each co-designed with patients, families and clinicians.
Earlier in 2025 Stinson was awarded the Peter Gilgan Canada Gairdner Mometum Award, making her the first nurse scientist to receive this award. Her contributions to the status of the nursing profession and pain research continue to earn her global recognition.