Dr. Dzifa Dordunoo

Dr. Dzifa Dordunoo
Position
Associate Professor, Acting Director
School of Nursing
Contact
Office: HSD B204
250-721-6284
Credentials

RN, PhD

Area of expertise

Metal hypersensitivity, Evidence-synthesis, Heart failure, sickle cell and critical care, JBI systematic reviews, racism

Dzifa Dordunoo PhD, RN, a native of Dzodze, Ghana, is associate professor at the University of Victoria, school of nursing. As a clinician, Dzifa has over 20 years of varied clinical practice experience working in general medicine and coronary care units as well as outpatient clinics (Heart failure and Sickle Cell).

Dr. Dordunoo has spent the past decade as a nurse educator. Having began her teaching career in 2011 as a clinical instructor at John Hopkins School of Nursing, she later taught at the University of Maryland, School of Nursing before joining the UVic School of Nursing in 2017. Dzifa teaches a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, particularly courses in cardiac surgical nursing, quantitative and qualitative analysis and research methodology.

Dr. Dordunoo is the Director of the University of Victoria (UVic) Centre for Evidence-Informed Nursing and Healthcare (CEiNHC), A JBI Centre of Excellence. She also serves on the BSN curriculum committee and the PhD curriculum committee

As a scholar and researcher, she has a strong research interest in improving access and quality of health services. Her program of research leverages dissemination and implementation science with patient-centered lens to address factors that influence quality and safety of care and outcomes, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Dzifa worked on several investigator-initiated studies and phase III/IV FDA clinical trials with implantable devices. Her recent projects have focused on metal hypersensitivity and racism as predictors of health outcomes. Her interest in metal hypersensitivity grew after she was involved in a clinical case of a patient with extensive allergy who experienced stent restenosis. She completed several projects that demonstrated a lack of awareness among healthcare workers about hypersensitivity reactions and that hypersensitivity reaction is not routinely discussed pre-operatively. She has also completed several projects on racism, highlighting the misrepresentation of race in health research and urging the need to shift the focus on racism as a determinant of health outcomes.  

Dr Dordunoo earned her bachelor's degree (with distinction) from University of Victoria (Canada) and holds a master’s degree from Duke University (USA) with post-master's certificate in clinical research management and teaching. She completed her doctoral education at the University of Maryland Baltimore (USA). She is currently the president of the Coalition of African, Caribbean and Black Nurses in British Columbia.

Email dzifa@uvic.ca for more information about her research program. 

Publications

Peer-reviewed

  • Dzifa Dordunoo, Minjeong An *, Min Sun Chu *, Eun Ja Yeun, Yoon, Young Hwang, Miran Kim, Yeonhu Lee. (2021). Practice Environment and Resilience Predict Burnout among Clinical Nurses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
  • Dordunoo, D., Hass, M., Smith, C., Aviles-Granados, M. L., Weinzierl, M., Anaman-Torgbor, J. A., … Adib, F. (2020). Metal hypersensitivity screening among frontline healthcare workers-A   descriptive  study. Journal of Clinical Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15571
  • Dordunoo, D., Anaman-Torgbor, J., Smith, C., Shaik, A., Hass, M., Gordon, C., … Weinzierl, M.(2020). Hypersensitivity in patients receiving metal implants. JBI Evidence Synthesis, Publish Ahead of Print, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.11124/jbies-20-00171 
  • Dordunoo, D. (2020). Race is not pathological but racism is. Revista Baiana de Enfermagem 34.e34990. DOI: 10.18471/rbe.v34.34990
  • Mallidou A, Dordunoo D, Borycki E, Kushniruk A, Sadeghi-Yekta K, Fraser J, Asuri S. (2020). Perspectives and experiences of policy-makers, researchers, health-information technology professionals, and the public on evidence-based health policies: A protocol of the KhITT framework. JMIR Nursing. DOI: 10.2196/16268
  • An, M., Cho, HN, Dordunoo, D., & Hwang, YY (2019). Development and effectiveness of simulation-based convergence training program for nursing students. Journal of Convergence for  Information Technology , 9 (10), 16–27. https://doi.org/10.22156/CS4SMB.2019.9.10.016
  • Anabah, T., Dordunoo, D., Kampo, S., Appiah-Denkyria, E., & Kaba, S. (2017). Anaesthesia services in Ghana – a descriptive study. Scholars Academic Scientific Journal of Medicine, 3:49-54.
  • Njie-Carr, V P.S., Ludeman, E., Lee, MC., Dordunoo, D., Trocky, N.M., & Jenkins, L. (2017). An integrative review of flipped classroom teaching models in nursing education. J Professional Nurs,  33(2):133-144 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.07.001
  • Dordunoo, D., Thomas, S.A., Friedmann, E., Russell, S.D., Newhouse, R., & Akintade, B. (2017). Inpatient unit heart failure discharge volume predicts all-cause 30-day hospital readmission. J  Cardiovasc Nurs doi: 10.1097/JCN.0000000000000331
  • Vaughan,E., Sesay, F., Chima, A., Mehes, M., Lee, B., Dordunoo, D., Sitch, A., de Wildt, G., Kamara, T.B., Leigh,B., Abdullah,F., & Sampson, J.  (2015). An Assessment of Surgical and Anesthesia Staff at 10 Government Hospitals in Sierra Leone. The Journal of the American Medical Association Surgery, 150(3):237-44. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2014.2246
  • Hazzard, B., Johnson, K., Dordunoo, D., Klein, T., Russell, B., & Walkowiak, P. (2013). Work – and Nonwork-related factors associated with PACU nurses’ fatigue. Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing, Volume 28, Number 4 (August), 201-209, DOI: DOI: 10.1016/l.jopan.2021.06.010
  • Petrucci, R.L., Rogers, J. G., Blue, L., Gallagher, C., Russell, S.D., Dordunoo, D., et al. (2012). Neurocognitive function in destination therapy patients receiving continuous-flow vs pulsatile-flow  left assist device support. J Heart Lung Transplant, 31(1):27-36. doi:10.1016j/j.healun.2011.10.012
  • Bennett, MK., Roberts, C., Dordunoo, D., Shah, A., & Russell, S.D. (2010). Ideal methodology to assess systemic blood pressure in patients with continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices, The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, Volume 29, Issue 5, May 2010, Pages 593-594, ISSN 1053-2498, DOI: 10.1016/j.healun.2009.11.604.
  • Slaughter MS, Rogers JG, Milano CA, Russell SD, Conte JV, Feldman D, Sun B, Tatooles AJ, Delgado RM 3rd, Long JW, Wozniak TC, Ghumman W, Farrar DJ, Frazier OH, HeartMate II investigators. (2009). Advanced heart failure treated with continuous-flow left ventricular assist device. N Engl J Med. Dec 3;361(23):2241-51. PubMed PMID: 19920051.
  • Petrucci, R. J., Wright, S., Naka, Y., Idrissi, K. A., Russell, S. D., Dordunoo, D.,Jaski, B., Chillcott, S., Feldman, D., Yanssens, T., Heatley, G., Koundakjian, L., Farrar, D. J., & Aaronson, K. D. (2009).  Neurocognitive assessments in advanced heart failure patients receiving continuous-flow left  ventricular assist devices. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, 28(6), 542-549.

Books, Chapters, Monographs

  • Dordunoo, D. (2017). Coordinating Care for Patients With Cardiac Disorders. In Hoffman, J. & Sullivan, N. (Eds.), Medical-Surgical Nursing: Making Connections to Practice (568-598). Philadelphia, P.A: F. A. Davis

Accepted Abstracts

  • Dordunoo, D., L. Aviles-G, M., Weinzierl, M., Smith, C., Hass., Anaman-Torgbor, J., Shaik, A. Metal hypersensitivity awareness among nurses. Canadian Council of Cardiovascular Nurses: Update Your Cardiovascular Nursing Toolkit 2020 Spring Conference (May 22-23rd 2020, Calgary, AB). Cancelled due to COVID-19
  • L. Aviles-G, M., & Dordunoo, D., “What is the meaning of race among nursing students”. Community Health Nurses of Canada 2020 (May 25-27th 2020, Richmond, BC). Cancelled due to COVID-19
  • Weinzierl, M., Dordunoo, D., L. Aviles-G, M., Hass, M., Smith, C., Anaman Torgbor, J., Shaik, A. “Evidence – practice gap: Nursing students’ awareness of metal hypersensitivity. Jamie CasselUndergraduate Research Award – Ideafest (March 4th 2020, Victoria,  BC).
  • Minjeong, An., & Dzifa Dordunoo. “An app-based stroke prevention program for adolescents: usability evaluation”. 2019 the 12th International Nursing Conference – Nursing Impact, “We Care!”(October 24-25, 2019, Seoul, South Korea).
  • Tassia Teles Santana de Macedo, Fernanda Carneiro Mussi, Debra Sheets, Dzifa Dordunoo. “Alcohol consumption among first-semester undergraduate nursing students” Human Caring Canada 2019, Victoria, BC (September 30 – October 1, 2019).
  • Dordunoo, D; Hanna T & Pullinger, M. “Metal hypersensitivity screening in inpatient cardiac care settings” Canadian Council of Cardiovascular Nurses: Update Your Cardiovascular Nursing Toolkit 2019 Spring Conference (May 24-25th 2019, Winnipeg, MB).
  • Dordunoo, D. “Implementing metal hypersensitivity screening into acute care setting”. Knowledge Translational Canada - Summer Institute (June 27-28, 2018; Toronto, ON).
  • Almansa, J., Dordunoo, D., & Judge, D. “Lack of prognostic significance using biomarkers in AL cardiac amyloid” Global Cardio-Oncology Summit (October 15-16, 2015; Nashville, TN).
  • Dordunoo, D., Beck, T., Conte, J., Shah, A., Mudd, J.O., Bubb, T., Meyer, P., Ullrich, S., Gilson, M.,  & Russell, S.R. "Bridge to Weight Loss: Myth or Reality" 14th Annual Scientific meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America (September 12-15, 2010, San Diego, CA). 

Opinion editorials/commentaries