Margarida Reis Santos is an integrated researcher of the NursID Group, of CINTESIS, at the Nursing School of Porto (ESEP), where she has been for 36 years and works as a Coordinating Professor. At 63, she feels happy with her profession. Her big smile does not lie.
“It’s addictive. My colleagues used to say I was a workaholic. I still am, but working until the early morning hours is more stressful now. I still work on weekends. I can’t isolate my work from my personal life. There are always people who need something in a tremendous hurry…”, she laughs.
She was born and lived in Lisbon until she was seven when she moved with her family to Porto. As a child, she had no idea what she wanted to be professionally. Nursing happened “by chance”. She enrolled in the course at the current School of Nursing of Santa Maria, and finished it in 1980. She also ventured into psychology for a year but chose to stay in nursing.
She worked as a nurse at the then São João Hospital, first in the Emergency Department, then in the Training Department. A needle stick from a patient infected with hepatitis dictated a change of job. Until she applied for a vacancy to teach at ESEP, in 1987. Interestingly, only after becoming a professor did she have a position to do a specialty in Child Health and Pediatrics, in 1992.
She earned her Masters and PhD in Nursing Science from the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, and further training in different areas such as “Human Resource Management in Nursing” and “Digital Information and Communication Technologies in Education,” from the University of São Paulo.
Margarida Reis Santos was part of the hard core of nine ESEP professors who integrated CINTESIS, constituting NursID, a research group focused on research and innovation in Nursing. The assessment of these years is very positive.
“I have had a lot of support from CINTESIS. The chance to conduct multidisciplinary research is very interesting. We have several Ph.D. students with scholarships, namely from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) via CINTESIS,” she stresses.
In her opinion, “research in Nursing is very important to have a practice that is based on credible evidence. We must constantly update our research so that we can keep up with the development of society and the way we think about Nursing and health”.
As a researcher, her main areas of interest include Child Health and Pediatrics, Family Nursing, obesity in children and adolescents, the pre-hospital approach in trauma victims, nurses’ intervention to reduce anxiety and medication in pre-operative contexts in adolescents, nurses’ attitudes towards death, bereavement, and the perceptions of family members (namely parents and children) of people with cancer.
“Right now, I investigate children and adolescents who have at least one parent with cancer. It’s important for nurses to have an intervention, not least because parents are often waiting for it to happen, for the nurse to address the issue and help them,” she says.
Other fields of research include Clinical Management and Supervision. Her most outstanding project at CINTESIS was, in fact, the project “Clinical Supervision and Quality of Professional Practice: Training, Management, and Support”.
“I have tried very hard to ensure that, through clinical supervision in Nursing, practice can be improved. Supervision allows nurses, considered experts, to support nurses in terms of their training, their personal and professional development, their integration in the service, but also at an emotional level,” she continues.
As she stresses, “Nursing is a profession of high stress, namely in Emergency and Oncology Services. How to deal with a teenager with cancer who says ‘I don’t want to die, I haven’t lived yet’? What do you say to a mother or father who says ‘If my child has to suffer like this, it’s not worth it’? Supervision aims to contribute to the improvement and quality of care and support at an emotional level to avoid stressful situations.
For the researcher, it is undeniable that “Nursing has evolved immensely, practice has improved and the transfer of knowledge has also improved, but more needs to be done, nurses need to assert themselves more in health teams. We need to have more time to discuss how to improve, to optimize practice based on the best evidence.
It was precisely with this in mind that, from May 8 to 12, the NursID 2023 – Spring School event was held. Margarida Reis Santos coordinated one of the thematic seminars, organized due to the relevance of education, training, and research in the area of Child Health and Pediatric Nursing, a master’s degree that she coordinates.
“We highly encourage our students to present the results of their research. A nurse, to care for children, must have an education that is not limited to a bachelor’s degree. All nursing students during their undergraduate studies must have training in Pediatrics, but it is the master’s degree that gives them the title of specialist in Child Health and Pediatrics. The focus of the nurse specialist should be on children and families, healthy and sick, with different types of pathologies, whether their intervention is in Primary Care, in differentiated care, or even in Palliative Care. A specialist nurse should be responsible for the most complex care. A good nurse must have competencies in terms of knowing and doing”, she declares.
NursID 2023 gathered, this year, 600 participants, including students and researchers from CINTESIS/ESEP, but also from other institutions.
What is your 1-Year Ambition?
I would like to be able to create, at CINTESIS, a research project in Child Health and Pediatrics. I would like to be able to host studies in this area, carried out by our Masters students as well, in this project, to articulate and give visibility to what nurses in the field can do to optimize the care provided to the child/adolescent and family. It would be an “umbrella” project, integrating people interested and motivated in improving pediatric nursing care.
What is your 10-Year Ambition?
In 10 years, I will be retired for sure [laughs]. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be thinking about it, but it’s a dilemma, because I really like what I do. I’m in no hurry. For now I’m fine.
On a professional level, as long as I feel I can make a contribution to the profession, I would like to get involved in projects and continue with research. In fact, research keeps a person alive!
How is Life Beyond Teaching and Research?
I enjoy reading, walking, traveling, going to the cinema and some shows. I also enjoy meetings with friends.
