Psychosocial and Service Delivery Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children With Respiratory Conditions, Their Parents and Their Health Care Providers.

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed widespread impacts on the health and well-being of children with respiratory challenges and their families, as well as on the health care system that supports them. An exploratory qualitative study was undertaken to examine how the pandemic impacted families' and health care providers' daily lives and experiences of care. Four youth, 12 parents and 7 health care providers participated in interviews via telephone or online technology.

Exploring the COVID-19 Practice Experiences of Social Workers Working in Long Term Care.

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in multiple public health protocols that shaped the service delivery system supporting older adults, their family caregivers and their formal care providers. In this qualitative study, sixteen social workers employed in long term care facilities in a western province of Canada shared their perspectives about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their practice early in the pandemic. Participants responded to nine open-ended online survey questions about their practice and experiences.

The experiences of children with a cardiac transplant, their families and health care providers in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had deleterious impacts on pediatric patients and families, as well as the healthcare providers who have attended to their care needs.

Methods: In this qualitative study, children with a cardiac transplant, as well as their families and healthcare providers were interviewed to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric care, as well as on patients' and their families' daily lives. Participants were recruited from a children's hospital in western Canada.

Development of and Preliminary Validity Evidence for the EFeCT Feedback Scoring Tool.

Background: Narrative feedback, like verbal feedback, is essential to learning. Regardless of form, all feedback should be of high quality. This is becoming even more important as programs incorporate narrative feedback into the constellation of evidence used for summative decision-making.

Effective competency-based medical education requires learning environments that promote a mastery goal orientation: A narrative review.

Purpose: Competency-based medical education (CBME) emphasizes the need for learners to be central to their own learning and to take an active role in learning. This approach has a dual aim: to encourage learners to actively engage in their own learning, and to push learners to develop learning strategies that will prepare them for lifelong learning. This review paper proposes a theoretical bridge between CBME and lifelong learning and puts forth the argument that in order for CBME programs to produce the physicians truly needed in our society now and in the future, learning environments must be intentionally designed to foster mastery goal orientations and to support the development of adaptive self-regulated learning skills and behaviours.

Developing a Canadian framework for social determinants of health and well-being among children with neurodisabilities and their families: an ecosocial perspective.

Purpose: Social Determinants of Health is a conceptual framework typically used to understand patterns of health and ill-health at the population level. Its applicability to children and youth who already have a health condition, in this case, a neurodisability, is not well understood, particularly when the "health" component of that framework is extended to include more pluralistic notions of well-being. The purpose of this study was to address this challenge and to develop an ecosocial framework that is conceptually integrative and meaningful to children and youth with neurodisabilities and their families.

A Review of CommunityWorks Canada: Toward Employability Among High School-Age Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

CommunityWorks Canada is a 12-week (30-hour) program that provides social, communication, and job skill-building activities as well as peer mentorship to youth with autism spectrum disorder. Administration of a pre- and postprogram employment readiness measure (n = 76 participants) demonstrated positive changes as reflected by the participants' decreased concerns about their responsibility, flexibility, job skills, communication, self-view, and health and safety. Postprogram qualitative interviews and survey data collected from a range of program stakeholders (participants, parents, peer mentors, and community partners/employers) corroborated identified gains in personal development, employment exposure, work proficiency, and comfort in work settings.

An Ecosystem Approach to Employment and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Relatively little is yet known about employment readiness and elements that promote access to, and the retention of, employment for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This paper posits elements within the ecosystem of employment and ASD. The ecosystem approach locates employment among persons with ASD as inextricably linked with broader community resources, family support, workplace capacity building (e.

Dental Students' Perceptions of Learning Value in PBL Groups with Medical and Dental Students Together versus Dental Students Alone.

At a dental school in Canada, problem-based learning (PBL) sessions were restructured from an integrated dental-medical model to a separate dental model, resulting in three groups of students available for study: those who had participated in the two-year dental and medical combined, the one-year dental and medical combined, the one-year dental alone, and the two-year dental alone. The aim of this qualitative study was to examine the extent to which the PBL structure affected the dental students' perceptions of the learning value of PBL in the different models. A total of 34 first-, second-, and third-year dental students participated in six focus groups in May and June 2011 (34% of students in those total classes).

Education as a social determinant of health: issues facing indigenous and visible minority students in postsecondary education in Western Canada.

The level of educational attainment is increasingly being recognized as an important social determinant of health. While higher educational attainment can play a significant role in shaping employment opportunities, it can also increase the capacity for better decision making regarding one's health, and provide scope for increasing social and personal resources that are vital for physical and mental health. In today's highly globalized knowledge based society postsecondary education (PSE) is fast becoming a minimum requirement for securing employment that can afford young adults the economic, social and personal resources needed for better health.