Senior Instructor
School of Nursing, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS
Expertise: Nurse migration and licensure policies and practices, professional integration of internationally educated nurses, anti-Black racism, social and structural determinants of health, Black and immigrant health, nursing education and mentorship, health and social equity
Damilola Iduye is a Senior Instructor at the Dalhousie School of Nursing, where she primarily teaches population health nursing, nursing and social responsibility, and advanced communication simulation. She is also a Research Scholar at the Healthy Populations Institute’s Improving the Health Outcomes of People of African Descent flagship and an active member of the Joanna Briggs Institute Aligning Health Needs and Evidence for Transformative Change, Dalhousie University.
She holds a Bachelor of Nursing Science from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, a Master of Nursing focusing on Health Policy from Dalhousie University, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She is currently enrolled in the PhD in Public Health Science at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. As a 2022/2023 Vanier Scholar and C. David Naylor Fellow, her doctoral research lies at the intersection of race, ethnicity, health and social policies, immigration and citizenship status, structural racism, and health. Specifically, she focuses on advancing health and social equity for Black and immigrant populations in Canada.
Since 2014, Damilola has been involved in various provincial and national projects and committees on the integration of internationally educated nurses (IENs) into the Canadian nursing workforce. Damilola is the Co-Founder and President of the Nova Scotia IENs Network, which she co-leads with eight other IEN leaders. In recognition of her contributions to supporting the professional integration of IENs in Nova Scotia and across Canada, Damilola was awarded the Top 25 Immigrants in the Maritimes award in 2018. This award honours Maritimers who stand out in their towns and cities and have made a difference in their communities. Early in 2023, the Government of Nova Scotia awarded funding to the Nova Scotia IENs Network under Damilola’s leadership to conduct the first-of-its-kind province-wide research on the experiences of IENs in integrating into the Nova Scotia health workforce. Damilola is also a member of the Government of Nova Scotia’s IENs Task Team and Provincial Nursing Network, comprising key partners in health human resource planning in Nova Scotia.
Outside the IEN community, Damilola has been part of a pan-Canadian working group aimed at unifying Black nurses in the country since 2020. The outcome of this collaborative partnership is the formation of the Pan-Canadian Association of Nurses of African Descent (PCANAD), a grassroots not-for-profit organization representing various provincial and jurisdictional organizations of nurses of African descent in Canada. PCANAD’s primary objectives are to advocate for the health and well-being of people of African descent in Canada and to amplify the voices of Nurses of African descent by promoting recruitment, retention, professional advancement, and representation in education, practice, administration, research, and policy. PCANAD’s member organizations include the Coalition of African, Caribbean, and Black Nurses in British Columbia; the Canadian Black Nurses Network; the Black Nurses Association of Nova Scotia; the Ontario Black Nurses’ Network; and the Saskatchewan Association of African, Caribbean, and Black Nurses. Damilola is also an active member and one of the leaders of the Black Nurses Association of Nova Scotia since its inception in 2019.
Furthermore, she is a public representative on the Governing Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia. As a member of the Council, she provides public perspectives about improved medical regulation through equity-informed advocacy for increased representation of Black physicians and enhanced accountability for fostering equity, diversity, inclusiveness, and accessibility in the medical profession.