Midwives' integration of post abortion manual vacuum aspiration in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a mixed methods case study & positive deviance assessment.

Background: Despite a recognized need for midwives to provide post abortion care, there exist barriers preventing them from integrating lifesaving skills such as manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) into practice. This collaborative research with the Professional Association of Congolese Midwives (SCOSAF), sought to understand how certain midwives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have overcome barriers to successfully integrate MVA for post abortion care. Specifically, in order to provide locally-driven solutions to the problem of inadequate post abortion care in the DRC, this study aimed to identify examples of positive deviance, or midwives who had successfully integrated MVA in complex working environments following an in-service training facilitated by their midwifery association, SCOSAF.

Practitioner Empowerment, Older Adult Mistreatment, and Dementia.

Although some studies have revealed practitioner disempowerment in cases of older adult mistreatment, this experience is poorly understood. In addition, dementia and contextual influences further complicate cases; yet,  little is known about the experience of practitioners with this complexity. This critical inquiry, based on Critical social theory, critical consciousness, and professional agency, aimed to address these gaps.

Practitioner Experience With Mistreated Older Adults Who Have Dementia: Understanding Contextual Influences and Consequences.

Studies of mistreatment of older adults have revealed alarmingly higher prevalence rates of mistreatment of those who have dementia. When the mistreatment occurs within the context of the home and is perpetrated by a family caregiver, it may remain hidden and only be discovered by the health and social service practitioners who have access to the home. Understanding the contexts within which this mistreatment occurs, and the influence of these contexts on the experience of these practitioners as well as on the resulting outcomes for mistreated older adults, has received little attention in the literature.

Mistreated older adults with dementia in the home: practitioner experience and unattainable professional agency.

The experience of practitioners who encounter mistreatment of an older adult with dementia by a caregiver in the home has received little attention in the literature. A critical research methodology aimed to understand the experience of professional agency, the ability to control outcomes and act in a meaningful way, of health and social service practitioners when encountering these cases in the home. Fifty-one practitioners from urban, rural and Northeastern communities in Ontario participated in semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, as well as focus group discussions.

"No Alcohol Is Recommended, But . . .": Health Care Students' Attitudes About Alcohol Consumption During Pregnancy.

Canadian findings suggest that health care providers require further training and education to support their work preventing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). However, the knowledge and training of health care students in relation to FASD remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this study was to understand the attitudes and beliefs of health care students about alcohol use during pregnancy.

Exploring the issue of failure to fail in a nursing program.

A study using a qualitative descriptive design was undertaken to explore the issue of "failure to fail" in a nursing program. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with nursing university faculty members, preceptors, and faculty advisors (n=13). Content analysis was used to analyze the data.

Older adult mistreatment risk screening: contribution to the validation of a screening tool in a domestic setting.

ABSTRACTThe hidden nature of older adult mistreatment renders its detection in the domestic setting particularly challenging. A validated screening instrument that can provide a systematic assessment of risk factors can facilitate this detection. One such instrument, the "expanded Indicators of Abuse" tool, has been previously validated in the Hebrew language in a hospital setting.

Context and cardiovascular risk modification in two regions of Ontario, Canada: a photo elicitation study.

Cardiovascular diseases, which include coronary heart diseases (CHD), remain the leading cause of death in Canada and other industrialized countries. This qualitative study used photo-elicitation, focus groups and in-depth interviews to understand health behaviour change from the perspectives of 38 people who were aware of their high risk for CHD and had received information about cardiovascular risk modification while participating in a larger intervention study. Participants were drawn from two selected regions: Sudbury and District (northern Ontario) and the Greater Toronto Area (southern Ontario).

Practical issues in using a card sort in a study of non-support and family caregiving.

The authors successfully used the card sort data collection technique with 17 female family caregivers in a large ethnographic study of non-support. In this article, they describe the practical issues they addressed. Initially, they developed strategies to construct meaningful statements that reflected key themes and were manageable in an interview.