About
Ismália De Sousa, MSc RN
(Ela/Dela/She/Her/Hers)
Doctoral Candidate at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Areas of interest: stroke care; stroke survivorship; health inequities; critical social theory; critical pedagogy; Black nurses’ history
Ismália De Sousa is a Doctoral Candidate in the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia (UBC), under the supervision of Dr. Sally Thorne, Dr. Sandra Lauck and Dr. Thalia Field. She is also a Teaching Assistant at the UBC School of Nursing and a Research Assistant in the Vancouver Stroke Program at Vancouver General Hospital/UBC.
Ismália earned her Bachelor’s Degree (with honours) in Nursing from Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Lisboa (Portugal) and a Master’s Degree in Advanced Practice Neuroscience Care from King’s College London (United Kingdom). Ismália’s extensive experience as a Registered Nurse and Clinical Nurse Specialist in stroke in the Comprehensive Stroke Center at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (London, UK), contributed to the development of her strong clinical and advanced nursing practice foundations and her knowledge about stroke systems and processes of care. As a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Nurse, Ismália’s role included the advanced assessment and care of people presenting with a suspected or confirmed stroke, health promotion and stroke care management. Ismália was also involved in improving clinical outcomes and patient experience through quality and safety improvement and stroke service development initiatives in collaboration with other healthcare providers. She led the development and implementation of a stroke-specific workforce education and development program for Registered Nurses and Allied Healthcare Professionals. Her understanding of the stroke survivorship experience was augmented by her role as a key stroke clinician accessible to patients throughout the stroke care continuum and her role overseeing a monthly stroke support group and stroke program for people with lived and living experience of stroke, their family members and caregivers.
Ismália has a track leadership record in various regional and national groups. From 2015 to 2020, she served as a member of the Royal College of Nursing Neuroscience Forum Steering Committee and spearheaded the development of the Career Framework for Stroke Nurses in the United Kingdom. Ismália also represented stroke nurses in the National Intercollegiate Stroke Working Party group chaired by Prof. Anthony Rudd (2017 – 2019) and co-chaired the National Senior Nurse Thrombectomy group (2018 – 2019) in the United Kingdom. In 2021, Ismália served as a member of the British Columbia Stroke Standard Development Committee, a group developing the first Stroke Quality Standards in British Columbia.
Ismália is the co-founder of the Coalition of African, Caribbean and Black Nurses in British Columbia, a grassroots nurse-led organization to address anti-Black racism and discrimination in healthcare in the province. She is a board director of After Stroke British Columbia, the Chair of the Communications & Marketing Committee in the Canadian Association of Neuroscience Nurses and an editorial board member of the British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing. Ismália also serves as an advisory member in local and national committees focused on Equity, Diversity, Justice and Belonging.
© Ismália de Sousa, 2023