Jennifer Dunsford, RN, PhD(c)

Research summary

My research concerns nurses' ethical decision-making processes, especially in the context of workplace violence, when the provision of necessary care places the nurse or others at risk of harm. From my doctoral study, I have developed Salient Vulnerability Theory, a conceptual approach to understanding how nurses navigate ethically challenging patient care scenarios, and how they manage the practical, emotional, and moral outcomes of difficult encounters in the workplace. 

The theory proposes that patient vulnerability provides a moral obligation to provide care, however that obligation is limited by violence that places the nurse at risk. When this happens, the nurse’s vulnerability becomes salient, and a decision to leave the situation, either permanently, or until such a time as a balance is restored and the nurse can safely resume care is justified. The theory has important implications for how we understand nurses’ ethical decision-making processes, in this area, and more broadly, across the entire scope of the nursing profession.

Keywords

• bioethics
• moral theory
• nursing ethics
• vulnerability
• professionalism
• workplace violence

Jennifer Dunsford (she/her) is a registered nurse and PhD candidate at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba with a longstanding interest in clinical and organizational healthcare ethics and nursing practice. She is an instructor with the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences College of Nursing at the University of Manitoba, where she has taught professional foundations and nursing practice courses in the Bachelor of Nursing program. 

Jennifer’s work history includes direct care nursing, roles in nursing leadership, patient safety, and clinical ethics, and in nursing education. Her research interests include intrapersonal conflict and ethical decision-making among nurses who experience workplace violence, bioethics and nursing ethics, experiential nursing education, and the professional identity and public image of nursing. 

She is a past president of the board of the Association of Regulated Nurses of Manitoba, a past board member of the Canadian Nurses Association, and is currently the vice-president of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Nurses Protective Society.

Education

PhD candidate (current), Individual Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Manitoba

Master of Public Administration, University of Winnipeg/University of Manitoba (2018)

Master of Nursing, Athabasca University (2010)

Bachelor of Nursing, University of Manitoba (2003)

Bachelor of Arts, University of Winnipeg (1992)

Awards

Association of Regulated Nurses of Manitoba, Excellence in Nursing Administration (2024)

Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of Manitoba, Graduate Fellowship (2021)