Dr. Olive Wahoush

Bio

Dr Olive Wahoush joined McMaster School of Nursing in 2001. In 2007 she completed her PhD in Health Policy Management and Evaluation at University of Toronto. She then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Offord Centre, McMaster University, during this time she completed a summer institute at the Centre for Refugee Studies at Oxford University. 

Dr Wahoush is an International Consultant to the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (Nursing) of  the World Health in Cairo.

She is an Associate Member of the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at McMaster University

Select Publications

Books

• Wahoush, O. When their preschooler is ill: Refugee and asylum seeking mothers. Saarbrucken, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing.  ISBN  978-3-8383-3101-0. 2010.

Contributions to Books

• Wahoush, O., Mujica, I., & Ladouceur, M. Environmental and global health. In Kozier, B., Ebb, G., Berman, A.J., Snyder, S,. Buck, M., Yiu, L., Ferguson, L Fundamentals of nursing: the nature of nursing practice in Canada. 3rd ed. (Chapter 10). Toronto, ON: Pearson Canada. 2016.

Journals

1. Antonipillai V, Abelson J, Wahoush O, Baumann A, Schwartz L. Policy Agenda-Setting and Causal Stories: Examining How Organized Interests Redefined the Problem of Refugee Health Policy in Canada. Healthc Policy. 2020 Feb;15(3):116-131. doi: 10.12927/hcpol.2020.26126. PMID: 32176615; PMCID: PMC7075449.
2. Filler, T., Georgiades, K., Khanlou, N and Wahoush, O. (2019). Understanding Mental Health and Identity    from Syrian Refugee Adolescents’ Perspectives. Int J Ment Health Addiction Dec. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00185-z
3. Wright, A., Jack, S.M., Ballantyne, M., Gabel, C., Bomberry, R., Wahoush, O. (2019). Indigenous mothers’ experiences of using primary care for their infants. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 14(1). DOI 10.1080/17482631.2019.1600940. Available online at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482631.2019.1600940
4. Wright, A., Gabel, C,, Bomberry, R., Jack, S. and Wahoush, O. (2019). An Application of Two-Eyed Seeing to Community-Engaged Research With Indigenous Mothers April 25, 2019 International Journal of Qualitative Methods

​Other

• Humanitarian Health Ethics (HHE) Research Group (including Olive Wahoush) (2020).  Alleviating suffering and upholding dignity in the midst of CoViD-19 response: A place for palliative care.  
• Carrie Bernard, Lisa Schwartz, Olive Wahoush, Ani Chénier, Kevin Bezanson, Matthew Hunt, Elysée Nouvet, Sonya DeLaat, Ibraheem Abu-Siam, Emmanuel Musoni, Rachel Yantzi. Partners: Sima Saleh (Médecins du Monde), Simon Pickard (R2HC), Annick Antierens (MSF), Jose Miguel Carrasco (WHO), Philippe Calain (MSF), Kemi Ogundipe (MSF). Humanitarian Health Ethics Research Group, Partnership and Dissemination Event:  Aid when there is “nothing left to offer”: A study of ethics and palliative care during international humanitarian action.  Geneva, Switzerland. September 26-27, 2018. Video and audio-recordings of the presentations can be found here: https://humanitarianhealthethics.net/hhe-in-geneva-september-2018/
• Wahoush, O. & Zigler, S. Discussants: Lifting The Burden: Reforming Canada's Immigration Loan Program Roundtable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac3 E91Rs7U  STAND Canada. Nov, 29, 2016.

Grants

• Wahoush O, Taylor C, Banfield L, Baker Collins S. In partnership with Hamilton Food Share. Hamilton Food Share: An impact analysis. SSRC. $25,000. 2018-19.
• Carter, N.; Carroll, S. and Wahoush, O. (Co-Is). Switching from Survival to Self-Management of Health: Exploring Access to Healthcare for Adult Newcomers in Hamilton with Non-infectious Chronic Diseases. Community Health and Education Research Fund of Hamilton Community Foundation $29,783. Apr 2017 .
• Wahoush, O., Impact of Infrastructure changes: Large Group PBL. MIETL Impact Fellowship award $15,000. 2015 Jun - 2018 Mar.   
• Atkinson, S., McDonald, S., Philips, S., & Taylor, V. (PIs), Hutton, E., Dobbins, M., Motolla, M., Bracken, K., Mallott, A.  & Wahoush, O. (Co-Is). Be Healthy in Pregnancy (B-HIP) with Nutrition and Exercise: A Study to Develop and Evaluate Novel, Safe and Feasible Approaches to Manage Gestational Weight Gain in the Community Health Services Setting with the Goal of Improving Control of Pregnancy Weight Gain to Positively Impact Maternal and Infant Outcomes. CIHR Operating Grant, $752,034. 2012 - 2017.

Research

Dr Wahoush is a health systems and policy researcher with expertise in community based participatory action research with a focus on equitable outcomes for the health and wellbeing of refugees and other vulnerable populations. Research interests and activities include supporting research teams aiming to include hard to reach populations. Recent examples include palliative care in humanitarian conflict, refugee health and wellbeing before and after settlement in Ontario, health system access, capacity development in community settings.  

Courses

Dr. Wahoush teaches in the 3rd (Community health nursing) and 4th year (Research, Clinical Practice and Independent studies) of the undergraduate BScN program and in the graduate program Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods in Health Research (NURS 715) and Refugee Health: Policies and Practice (HlthSci 709).  Interested in Global Health, working with communities and students learning to work in and with communities in their clinical practice, research or independent studies. She enjoys collaborations with practitioners, clinicians and others working with priority populations in particular those which enable students to expand their knowledge, skills and confidence in leading and participating in research, quality improvement and community health nursing. She also provides teaching and consultation for communities, organizations, program planners and decision makers locally and internationally.