2026 Nursing Research Summit and Malasanos Lectureship Voices of Nursing Research and Scholarship for a Healthier Future, April 10, 2026

About the Conference

Equip nursing students, faculty, clinicians, and educational partners to harness their lived‑experience voices as a catalyst for scholarship—identifying clinically relevant research questions, translating evidence into practice, and forging interdisciplinary collaborations that improve patient health and system‑wide outcomes.

The College of Nursing, UF Health, and the North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System are partnering to present the 2026 Nursing Research Summit and Malasanos Lectureship. The Nursing Research Summit will showcase innovative research that can be used to solve complex health problems.

Submission Information

Submission Deadline is March 6th

Now an annual highlight of the program, we are excited to continue offering the opportunity to present your abstract through a Lightning Talk format. Lightning Talks use a fast-paced delivery method consisting of 15 informational slides that auto-advance every 32 seconds for a total of 8 minutes. Lightning Talk presenters are provided with pre-timed slide decks along with additional resources and practice support. This dynamic presentation style allows presenters to illustrate the most salient details of their projects in a concise and engaging way.

Program Objectives

After attending the 2026 Nursing Research Summit and Malasanos Lectureship: Voices of Nursing Research and Scholarship for a Healthier Future, participants will be able to:

• Identify how professional observations can be translated into researchable questions by examining approaches used by nurses. 
• Assess strategies for integrating research findings with professional judgment and patient preferences to support evidence‑based decision‑making in practice.
• Explore opportunities to foster collaborative relationships that enhance innovation, support interdisciplinary engagement and improve patient outcomes.

Nursing Continuing Professional Development Information

This program offers 3 CE credits. Please note that credits will be submitted to CE Broker by the end of May 2026.

The Office of Professional Nursing Development — University of Florida is approved as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the Montana Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

For more information on the Nursing Research Summit and Malasanos Lectureship, contact Patty Youngblood.

Phone: (352) 273-6635
Fax: (352) 294-8102

Keynote Speaker

Jessica Keim-Malpass, PhD, RN
Deputy Director of CAMA
Associate Professor of Nursing and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Virginia School of Medicine

Jessica Keim Malpass is a nurse scientist and pediatric hematology-oncology nurse practitioner. She received her Ph.D. in Nursing Science from the University of Virginia and has completed additional graduate degrees in advanced practice pediatric nursing, regulatory science, clinical epidemiology, and health economics/pharmacoeconomics.

Dr. Keim-Malpass’s research includes translational science, economics, and computational methods that support evidence integration in precision medicine to allow patients, families, clinicians, and health systems to make decisions about novel therapeutics with an equity-oriented approach. Populations she works with include adolescents, children, and young adults with medical complexity and severe illness and those with a hematological or cancer diagnosis. 

Alongside CoMET creator Dr. Randall Moorman, Dr. Keim-Malpass conducted research for analytics software for the early detection of imminent catastrophic illness, CoMET, leading the introduction of UVA’s Surgical and Trauma ICU. She also partnered with Dr. Jamie Bourque to conduct a large R01-funded clinical trial assessing the effectiveness of CoMET implementation across acute care wards. She has authored papers detailing the importance of AI-based technologies for nurses treating patients with rapid deterioration with COVID-19. She currently leads the Dissemination and Implementation core efforts at iThriv, an NIH-funded cross-state collaboration between UVA, Virginia Tech, Inova, and Carilion Clinic. She was recognized as a National Academy of Medicine Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence in 2021 and inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2022.