The School of Health Administration Alumni Association is pleased to present “Quality and Patient Safety: How Doctors Think (And How Sometimes They Don’t)” by Dr. Pat Croskerry, Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and Division of Medical Education, as part of their “Excellence in Health” speaker series. The event is taking place on Thursday, December 1st from 7:00 – 9:00 pm at the Regency Ballroom in the Lord Nelson Hotel. All are welcome.
Dr. Michael Ungar and Dr. Linda Liebenberg, faculty members at the School of Social Work and co-directors of the Resilience Research Centre, have recently applied for the Grand Challenges Canada – Canadian Rising Stars in Global Health Award with their proposed program “Cambodian Living Arts.” To learn more, see the DalNews story.
The Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health (ACEWH) extends an invitation for the introduction of their new SGBA e-learning resource on November 23, from 2:30 to 5:30 at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia in Halifax. The online resource is open to the public at www.sgba-resource.ca For more information, visit the ACEWH website.
The School of Occupational Therapy offers a number of international fieldwork opportunities to occupational therapy (OT) students. As part of an exchange agreement that the School has with Charles Sturt University in Australia, four OT students had the unique opportunity to have a fieldwork experience in a different country. Two Dalhousie OT students – Mando Beciaris and Jennifer Roberts – completed their final placement in an independent living centre and inpatient ward in Canberra, Australia and two Charles Sturt OT students – Kate Connor and Stephanie Carman – completed their final placement in Halifax with mental health services at the Capital District Health Authority (CDHA).
When asked to reflect on the learning such international experiences offer, the students spoke of learning about:
Although occupational therapy practice is quite similar in Canada and Australia, the experiencing a placement in another country “provided a whole new level of understanding,” which was enhanced by learning about a different culture, being independent and having the opportunity to travel.
When asked to provide advice for other students considering international fieldwork, the participants encouraged others to “take the challenge, step out of your comfort zone…take advantage of the opportunity;” and to “know your coursework and be able to apply it in a practical sense and know how to adapt the knowledge to the practice area (you) are completing, get involved in the workplace environment and culture and research the area of practice and the health care system of the country you are going to.” One participant summarized the experience by saying “the opportunity of travelling overseas allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone and learn about another country’s health care system and culture. I would highly reccomend such international placements to all students!”
Compiled by: Heidi Lauckner (International Fieldwork Education Coordinator, School of Occupational Therapy), Mando Beciaris and Jennifer Roberts (Dalhousie OT graduates), Kate Connor and Stephanie Carman (Charles Sturt University OT students)
The School of Physiotherapy recently, on October 25 and 26, welcomed Dr. Steven Wolf as part of their Distinguished Lecture Series. Dr. Wolf is Professor of Medicine and Rehabilitation Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. To read more about Dr. Wolf’s visit, read the full story on the PT Matters blog.
Dr. Rachel Caissie (School of Human Communication Disorders) is a contributor to the recently published book “Teaching Heart Auscultation to Health Professionals” edited by Dr. John Finley, a pediatric cardiologist with Dalhousie and the IWK Health Centre. The book details instructional methods for distinguishing between abnormal heart sounds using a stethoscope. Dr. Caissie, who holds a PhD in audiology, approached the topic of heart auscultation by “adapt(ing) techniques we use in audiology in which we train people with hearing aids and cochlear implants to make maximum use of what hearing they have left.” To learn more, read the DalNews story.
The call for nominations for this year’s FHP Teaching Excellence Awards has now been released. For further information, please see below (click on image to view larger) or consult the FHP Website.
DalNews recently profiled Social Work graduate Miriam Laskey, who has coped with a severe mental health disability for much of her adult life, and is now helping others through her work with the Caring and Sharing Social Club – a place for adults with disabilities run by the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Members of the IP student team deliver their final presentation at Maplestone.
In 2010, Shannex and Dalhousie University joined to create the first academic nursing home in Atlantic Canada. Through collaboration among health professionals, researchers, educators, learners, clients and their families, the Maplestone Collaborative Learning Centre (CLC) seeks to enhance the preparation of new health professionals for collaborative practice in long term care and to identify and address current issues in long term care policy and practice.
Located at Maplestone Enhanced Care, an 87-bed Shannex facility in Halifax, the Collaborative Learning Centre was made possible through formal partnership agreements with Dalhousie’s Department of Family Medicine and Faculty of Health Professions, both signed in 2010. The Family Medicine partnership involves academic attending physicians and first year Family Medicine residents who provide ongoing medical care to all Maplestone clients. The Health Professions partnership has integrated researchers, educators and learners from professions with established roles in long term care (LTC) in Nova Scotia (such as nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy and social work) and those with developing roles in this sector (such as audiology, nurse practitioner and speech language pathology).
Together, CLC partners have created an interprofessional learning environment for all health professions that will lead a positive change in attitude and culture towards LTC and care of the elderly and set the standard for client-directed, collaborative care by:
To date, over 160 learners from 12 professions have completed rotations through the CLC and there hae been two structured interprofessional education (IPE) placements. Currently, a team development grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is supporting the identification of collaborative research priorities.
Feedback from learners, Maplestone clients, families and staff to date has been overwhelmingly positive: “There’s so much overlap between the professions that we’ve learned that to work independently isn’t really beneficial…that if we work as a collaborative team we can actually be more beneficial and effective for the client’s care.” Faculty of Health Professions Student, 2011.
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Audrey (left) takes to the podium with her teammate
Congratulations to Audrey Prayal-Brown, an MSC Kinesiology candidate in the School of Health and Human Performance (Supervisor – Dr. John Kozey) who recently won gold and silver at the 2011 Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships in Durban, South Africa. The sport of lifesaving is competitive lifeguarding – certified lifeguards put their skills to the test against each other. It is the only sport in the world where participants first learn their skills for a humanitarian purpose and only later use them in competition. It is internationally recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Commonwealth Games Federation.
Audrey won a gold medal in the Line Throw competition – the competitor throws an unweighted line to a fellow team member located in the water approximately 12 m distant and pulls this “victim” back to the poolside – with a time of 11.17s, a Canadian and Commonwealth record. Audrey and her team won silver and set a Canadian record in the Mannequin Carry Relay – a team of four lifesavers must swim 25m carrying a 40lb mannequin before passing it to the next member of their team – with a time of 1:36.76.
In addition to this success, Audrey also presented “Buoyancy testing: study 1 – Determination of Underwater Buoyancy” at the 2011 National Association of Canadian Ergonomists Conference in London, Ontario. The presentation is the first of a three phase study that Audrey is working on with a team of researchers comprised of John Kozey, Dana Sweeney and Paul Potter. She presented the same study at the Atlantic ACE Conference this past spring and won the Undergraduate award.