St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton announced today the creation of a new nursing scientist position to drive research designed to improve quality of care and system performance. The position is being created in partnership with McMaster University’s School of Nursing.
Dr. Carly Whitmore, a nurse and faculty member at the McMaster School of Nursing, has been appointed to the new scientist in nursing role, which took effect November 1, 2025.
The scientist in nursing position is a two-and-a-half year jointly funded collaboration aimed at advancing nursing-led clinical research at St. Joes. Designed specifically for members of McMaster’s nursing faculty, the position is also supported by The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton and the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation.
A first-of-its-kind collaboration for McMaster University’s School of Nursing, the position is a significant investment in nurse-led clinical research, with a focus on improving mental health care in acute care environments.
“This is a major step in integrating research with patient-centred, compassionate care,” said Brooke Cowell, executive vice president, clinical services and chief nursing executive at St. Joe’s. “By adding a nurse scientist, St. Joe’s is strengthening our commitment to evidence-informed practice and ensuring that innovation translates directly to better patient outcomes.”
A psychiatric and mental health nurse, Whitmore focuses on improving mental health care and support for people with chronic conditions. Whitmore’s research bridges clinical care with system-level innovation to design relationship-driven, compassionate care models that foster connection. She is also the founder and co-lead of the Learning Health Hub, a national network advancing collaboration and innovation in Canadian healthcare. Whitmore has a particular interest in advancing care for women experiencing severe mental illness and part of her new role will focus on that.
“I’m seeking to understand how care systems can better respond to the complex realities of people’s lives,” said Whitmore. “As St. Joe’s first nurse scientist, I’m excited for the opportunity to advance our shared commitments and explore the ways research can enhance how care is delivered and experienced.”
Whitmore will conduct research at St. Joe’s through 2028 as an affiliated researcher with The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton. Her work will examine how interdisciplinary medical interventions, care practices, and system-level strategies can better support people with serious mental illness during inpatient hospitalization, with particular attention to the unique and intersecting needs of women in these settings.
“Too often, people with serious mental illness rely on hospitals for medical and psychiatric care because community services are under-resourced,” said Whitmore. “That makes the quality of inpatient care critically important—especially for women, whose needs are often overlooked.”
The nurse scientist role builds on a longstanding affiliation between St. Joe’s and McMaster, which began in 1969 when St. Joe’s became the first hospital in the country to sign a formal agreement with McMaster’s newly founded medical school.
“This reflects our shared commitment to advance nursing through research that directly impacts care,” said Sandra Carroll, vice-dean in the Faculty of Health Sciences and executive director of the School of Nursing at McMaster University. “By situating a nurse scientist in the hospital environment we’re building a bridge for collaboration between academic, clinical and health system perspectives.”