Background: Ancestral Black Nova Scotian (ABNS) nurses are a culturally distinct group yet, little is known about their experiences. Available literature suggests that ABNS nurses are underrepresented in nursing and that they encounter discrimination throughout the health system. Understanding the experiences of ABNS nurses facilitates addressing antiBlack racism in nursing and healthcare.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Black nurses are under-represented in the Canadian nursing workforce. A legacy of discrimination and systemic barriers reinforce the under-representation of Black nurses in the nursing workforce throughout the health system.
Objective: The objective of this study was to identify and describe organizational initiatives for the recruitment, retention and advancement of Black nurses in the healthcare system.
Kasaai et al describe the career trajectories of embedded scientists trained through the Health System Impact Fellowship (HSIF), showing that 37% of 2017-2019 HSIF alumni continue as embedded researchers in health systems. These findings suggest that the HSIF program effectively supports career readiness in health services and policy research (HSPR). Similarly, the Network of Scholars (NoS) program, launched post-pandemic in Nova Scotia, mirrors these results, with alumni continuing in embedded roles and mentoring a new cohort of learners from undergraduate to postgraduate levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Health Serv Res
February 2024
Aim: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how health care professionals, managers and community members experienced the implementation of a training program in comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care training in rural Tanzania.
Background: Given the high rates of maternal and newborn mortality in Tanzania, the government committed to improving maternal health by increasing access to health care; improving reproductive, maternal, newborn health; reducing maternal and neonate mortality; and increasing the number of public health centers with emergency obstetric and neonatal care. To address the gap in emergency obstetric and neonatal care amongst the health workforce, five health care facilities in rural Tanzania participated in a 3-month specialized training program.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed long-standing deficiencies with existing nurse recruitment and retention approaches, resulting in critical shortages of nursing capacity that are set to worsen without appropriate action. Decades of evidence and experience suggest that a multi-pronged approach that fosters an enabling and supportive work environment for nurses across all stages of their working lifespan will be required to build a more sustainable nursing workforce. This paper demonstrates Nova Scotia's innovation in creating a comprehensive, evidence-informed approach to nursing workforce planning and management, including key strategic areas of action related to (1) facilitating entry into the workforce, (2) investing in the active workforce and (3) enhancing support for and managing attrition of the workforce.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction And Aims: Due to physical distancing recommendations because of the COVID-19 pandemic, recruitment approaches for perinatal research needed to shift from in-person to remote. The purpose of this study is to describe the recruitment and retention of women for an mHealth intervention study for Essential Coaching for Every Mother.
Methods: Three methods were used for recruitment: social media, posters in hospital, and media outreach.
Background: People of African Nova Scotian (ANS) ancestry are a culturally distinct group who experience numerous socioeconomic inequities and health disparities, secondary to structural and social determinants of health. Understanding the experiences of ANS health practitioners is important in addressing anti-Black racism in health care. We sought to critically examine the leadership experiences of ANS nurses in health care practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: With migration occurring over a series of centuries, dating back to the 1600's, the circumstance regarding Black people in Canada is a complex account. A plethora of social issues and the failure to adequately acknowledge and reconcile historical issues, has resulted in health inequity, disparities and knowledge gaps, related to the Black population in Canada. In nursing, historical records indicate a legacy of discrimination that continues to impact Black nurses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Institute of Health Services and Policy Research's (IHSPR's) Strategic Plan 2021-2026 for accelerating health system transformation is well positioned to meet the strategic priorities being outlined by many health systems in Canada and internationally (CIHR IHSPR 2021). The IHSPR Health System Impact Fellow program has been a strong influence on the embedded research and scientist program in Nova Scotia, namely, the Network of Scholars Program, which was implemented just before the pandemic. The network includes scientists and scholars from diverse academic backgrounds and skill levels including alumni of the Health System Impact Fellow program.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRepeated calls to adopt more robust workforce planning, particularly for the nursing workforce, stretch back decades. These calls have generally not been met with action by health system decision makers, and the negative consequences - widespread shortages, even in wealthy countries, and decreased quality of care despite increased costs - have come to pass much as predicted. In contrast to this historical pattern, this paper presents Nova Scotia Health's experience in planning for its critical care nursing workforce during COVID-19 as a case study in integrating evidence-based workforce planning into the operations of a healthcare organization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Women are the fastest growing population in Canadian prisons. Incarceration can limit access to essential health services, increase health risks and disrupt treatment and supports. Despite legal requirements to provide care at professionally accepted standards, evidence suggests imprisonment undermines sexual and reproductive health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The objective of this review is to synthesize the evidence on African Canadian nurses in the nursing profession in Canada.
Introduction: With approximately 1.2 million people of African descent, Canada has committed to addressing the United Nations' decade for people of African descent.
Background: Increasing incarceration of women disrupts fertility, family formation, parenting and mother-child relationships. It is common in many jurisdictions, including Canada, to mitigate the harm of separation from the primary parent through programs allowing children to co-reside with their mothers in prison. In this scoping review, we asked the following questions: (1) What are the characteristics of residential mother-child programs in carceral facilities? (2) Who is eligible to participate? (3) How do these programs make a difference to maternal and child health outcomes?
Method: We use the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for systematic scoping reviews.
Objective: The objective of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of mother-targeted mobile health (mHealth) education interventions during the perinatal period on maternal psychosocial outcomes in high-income countries.
Introduction: The perinatal period is an exciting yet challenging period for mothers that requires physical, emotional and social adjustment to new norms and expectations. In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of mHealth by new mothers who are seeking health information through online or mobile applications.
Introduction: Canadians report persistent problems accessing primary care despite an increasing per-capita supply of primary care physicians (PCPs). There is speculation that PCPs, especially those early in their careers, may now be working less and/or choosing to practice in focused clinical areas rather than comprehensive family medicine, but little evidence to support or refute this. The goal of this study is to inform primary care planning by: (1) identifying values and preferences shaping the practice intentions and choices of family medicine residents and early career PCPs, (2) comparing practice patterns of early-career and established PCPs to determine if changes over time reflect cohort effects (attributes unique to the most recent cohort of PCPs) or period effects (changes over time across all PCPs) and (3) integrating findings to understand the dynamics among practice intentions, practice choices and practice patterns and to identify policy implications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article highlights a growing gap in the Canadian nursing workforce, specifically in nursing leadership. Black nurses are significantly underrepresented in nursing and even more so as nurse leaders. This commentary will provide a brief background related to Black nurses in healthcare, a description of nursing leadership, the significance of having Black nurses in leadership positions and finally how to move towards increasing the representation and visibility of Black nurse leaders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Tanzania has high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. Comprehensive guidelines for postpartum care have been developed by the government as a means to improve health outcomes during the perinatal period. Despite the creation of these guidelines and the government's commitment to universal perinatal care for women and neonates, there is concern that the delivery of postpartum services may not be meeting the needs of mothers and neonates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSCY-078 is an orally bioavailable triterpenoid glucan synthase inhibitor in clinical development as an intravenous and oral treatment of fungal infections caused by Candida and Aspergillus species. This was a sequential, single-center, open-label phase 1 study to assess the drug-drug interaction potential between SCY-078 and tacrolimus during concomitant administration in healthy subjects. In cohort 1, period 1, subjects received a single oral dose of tacrolimus 2 mg in the fasted state.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSCY-078, the first in a new class of β 1,3-glucan synthesis inhibitors, is being developed as an oral and intravenous antifungal treatment for Candida and Aspergillus species fungal infections. In vitro, studies indicated SCY-078 is an inhibitor of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C8 with markedly lower effect over other CYP isozymes. To examine clinically relevant effects of the potential interaction with SCY-078, this phase 1, open-label, 2-period crossover study evaluated the pharmacokinetic parameters of rosiglitazone, a sensitive substrate of CYP2C8 metabolism, in the absence and presence of SCY-078 dosed to therapeutically relevant SCY-078 concentration exposure after repeat dosing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJBI Database System Rev Implement Rep
March 2018
Objective: The objective of this review was to evaluate the impact of the Helping Babies Survive program on neonatal outcomes and healthcare provider knowledge and skills.
Introduction: The Helping Babies Survive program consists of three modules: Helping Babies Breathe, Essential Care for Every Baby, and Essential Care for Small Babies. It was developed to reduce preventable newborn deaths through skill-based learning using simulation, learning exercises, and peer-to-peer training of healthcare providers in low-resource areas.
Background: Despite its achievements in decreasing HIV prevalence and under-five mortality, Zambia still faces high maternal and neonatal mortality, particularly in the rural and remote areas where almost 60% of the population resides. After significant investments in developing its community health system, the Zambian Ministry of Health was interested to understand how to leverage the role of nurses to sustain achievements made and further improve the quality of care in rural communities. The Ministry joined research partners in an assessment into the role and leadership capacity of nurses heading rural health facilities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Sustainable Development Goals challenge us to step beyond traditional development approaches and to consider strategies that are evidence informed and innovative. The concepts are familiar; themes aligned with Harmonization, Primary Healthcare, Leadership, Public Private Partnerships, Community Engagement, and Integrated Technologies. However, to optimize resources and overcome today's challenge with sustainable solutions, we must capture lessons learned and apply evidence developed to inform and expand the thinking to shape and inform new paradigms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article describes findings from one stage of a longitudinal study of the professional socialization experiences of Millennial nurses as they prepared for graduation and transition to practice. This study employed an interpretive narrative methodology guided by Polkinghorne's theory of narrative identity. Analysis of face-to-face interviews and journal entries by Millennial nursing students uncovered the formal professional socialization experiences over four years of nursing education.
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