Jennifer Dunn is a perioperative and pediatric nurse with over 25 years of experience across high-acuity clinical settings, including perioperative nursing, neonatal intensive care, and interdisciplinary surgical outreach. Her work spans clinical leadership, simulation-based education, mentorship, and equity-informed nursing pedagogy. Jennifer is a doctoral candidate in Nursing at the University of Saskatchewan, where her research explores professional identity, institutional silencing, moral distress, and relational practice in nursing.

Her scholarship uses narrative inquiry and critical theoretical perspectives to examine leadership, communication, and power in healthcare, with a focus on nursing voice, autonomy, and ethical practice. Jennifer serves on the Operating Room Nurses Association of Canada (ORNAC) Guidelines Committee, is a board member of the Canadian Association for the History of Nursing (CAHN), and is an active member of the Narrative Matters International Community, advancing reflective writing and narrative scholarship in healthcare.

Areas of Instruction

• Perioperative Nursing and Surgical Care
• Neonatal and Pediatric Nursing
• Acute and Complex Health Across the Lifespan
• Chronicity and Aging
• Leadership and Professional Identity in Nursing
• Research Literacy and Evidence-Informed Practice

Area of Scholarship

• Narrative Inquiry, Nursing History, Professional Identity, and Relational Practice
• Leadership, Power, Voice, and Mutual Mentorship in Healthcare
• Perioperative Nursing and Interprofessional Team Communication and Collaboration
• Simulation and Experiential Nursing Education
• Community-Engaged and Global Nursing Education

Teaching Pattern

Teaching-Scholarship-Service

Selected Publications

Dunn, J. (2026). Care, discipline, and the politics of visibility in allied surgical histories, 1870–1945. Nursing Inquiry, 33, e70101. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.70101

Dunn, J. (2025). Subordination by design: Rethinking power, policy, and autonomy in perioperative nursing. Nursing Inquiry. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.70043

Dunn, J. (2025). Diminishment by design: The role of class, gender and architecture in shaping the nursing profession. Nursing Philosophy, 26(4), e70042. https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.70042

Dunn, J. (2025). Overcoming power distance and deferential speech syndrome in the operating room. ORNAC Journal, 42(1), 33–43. https://doi.org/10.5737/ornac14513.

Dunn, J. (2025). Cultivating mutual mentorship: Reimagining relational leadership in perioperative nursing. ORNAC Journal. https://doi.org/10.5737/ornac16385

Relevant Community Service

Jennifer’s professional service spans national nursing leadership, global surgical outreach, and interdisciplinary scholarly engagement. She serves on the Operating Room Nurses Association of Canada (ORNAC) Guidelines Committee and is a board member of the Canadian Association for the History of Nursing (CAHN). Through Project Outreach, she has coordinated and delivered perioperative education and mentorship initiatives in underserved communities, with a focus on culturally responsive and sustainable surgical capacity building. She is also an active member of the Narrative Matters International Community, contributing to reflective writing and narrative scholarship in healthcare.