For Steve Iduye, nursing is a holistic vocation that must encompass compassion, communication and the use of data analytics to better determine and respond to the needs of each person.
A nurse scientist and an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Iduye is a consummate builder of bridges with experience learned during the last 24 years he worked in the fields of mental health, long-term care and health informatics. His career has spanned three continents, including a stint with the World Health Organization collaborating centre in Nigeria; when he came to Canada in 2009, he first worked in Goose Bay, Newfoundland, gradually realizing there was a need for nurses with graduate degrees who could close the gap between new technologies and care.
To that end, he completed a master’s in Health Informatics at the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, while he is scheduled to defend his PhD thesis in the same subject this summer at the University of Saskatchewan.
According to Iduye, health informatics is critical to understanding the needs of older adults who live in long-term care (LTC) homes. “We see LTC residents at their most vulnerable moments, and they need someone who listens and responds to their needs,” he notes. “Health data analytics can echo residents’ voices and could help nurses understand factors such as loneliness better in older adults.”
“AGE-WELL is so important for anyone who wants a career in health technology for older adults.”– Steve Iduye
It all comes down to what Iduye, a graduate of AGE-WELL’s EPIC program (Early Professionals, Inspired Careers), calls “InterRAI tool,” which can be used by nurses to assess residents’ health needs and generate real-time reports that both detail risks and recommend steps to enhance care. According to Iduye, this tool complements nurses’ clinical judgement and supports quality care in LTC homes because “the data allows you to maximize the time you have with each resident so that they feel they have received the best care from someone who is interested in them.”
Growing up in Oyo State, Nigeria, Iduye watched his mother, a government-trained doula, help women throughout the region give birth, while an older sister became a nurse and worked in New York state. “Their work profoundly influenced me and when it was time for me to choose a career, it was easy,” he says. “Nursing was a familiar choice.”
On that path, Iduye was introduced to AGE-WELL, displaying his research poster at the network’s 2022 annual conference in Regina. He found the questions and exchange of ideas challenging, exciting and inspiring, and the relationships that began there continue to this day.
“AGE-WELL is so important for anyone who wants a career in health technology for older adults,” he says. “No matter if you are a researcher, an entrepreneur or someone who simply seeks to improve knowledge and skills, it gives you the chance to collaborate with and learn from others.
“I am so proud to be a part of AGE-WELL and its mission to improve and humanize science. As a young researcher, it has given me a pathway.”