معرفی
Marie-Claude Thifault is a Full Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences. She holds the Research Chair on Canadian Francophonie in Health and directs the Nursing History Research Unit. Her work focuses on Quebec and Canadian psychiatric institutions, mental health care history, and deinstitutionalization processes. She has led major research projects including studies on French-language mental health services and cross-jurisdictional comparisons of dehospitalization policies between Ontario and Quebec. Her publications emphasize historical methodologies to inform nursing education and critical thinking.
Her research interests include the evolution of psychiatric nursing roles, mental health policy, and the intersection of cultural contexts with mental health care. Notable works include analyses of Saint-Jean-de-Dieu Hospital’s institutional practices and the historical role of nursing in psychiatric care. She has also explored patient narratives and institutional archives to document healthcare histories.
Thifault has advised over a dozen graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, focusing on topics like nursing advocacy, community mental health integration, and historical patient experiences. Her work is supported by grants from CIHR and CRSH, addressing themes such as minority-language mental health access and deinstitutionalization trajectories in Acadian and Franco-Ontarian communities.
Her contributions to the Nursing History Research Unit aim to preserve healthcare heritage and inform contemporary practices through historical insights. She collaborates on interdisciplinary projects linking archival research, qualitative methodologies, and healthcare policy analysis.
