Archives for July 2019

PLANS Professional Profile: Joy Chiekwe

July 29, 2019 Jennifer LeBlanc Leave a Comment

Written by: Nnamdi Chiekwe, Therapeutic Recreation Student

Interview with: Joy Chiekwe, Certified Exercise Physiologist

Promoting Leadership in health for African Nova Scotians (PLANS) is writing a monthly blog post highlighting “Faces of Black Health”. This post highlights Joy Chiekwe and her role as a Certified Exercise Physiologist. These profiles can also be found on our website in the Faces of Black Health Section.

Joy Chiekwe

What do you do?

I am a Certified Exercise Physiologist working with the Nova Scotia Health Authority. I am also a Personal trainer working at Blended Athletics but also take on private clients.

What’s your role in your health Profession?

As an Exercise Physiologist my main specialty is in the prescriptions and delivery of clinical exercise as medicine, but we also focus on behaviour change and lifestyle modification. A main role of our work focuses on dealing with persons who have chronic and complex health conditions, as well as those who are working on their fitness, to become healthier and more fit.

In my current role as an Exercise physiologist, I am working on a research project called Activating Cancer Communities through an Exercise Strategy (ACCESS) where I am the exercise lead (research coordinator). ACCESS is an exercise program for those who have been diagnosed with cancer and other chronic conditions. I also work with the Cardiology Research Team administering at-home exercise programs for people living with Atrial Fibrillation.

If you have/feel comfortable sharing, can you explain your experiences as a Black Health professional in your field?

As a recent graduate, my experience in my professional career is young and thus far is limited. Our community is small with about 300 certified exercise physiologists working throughout Canada. Although new in my profession, I believe I have a unique experience, because to my knowledge I am the only Black Exercise Physiologist in Nova Scotia, where there are around 15 practicing Exercise Physiologists, and perhaps even in Canada.

I can speak more to my journey so far in becoming an Exercise Physiologist. To become a Certified Exercise physiologist, you must get certification through the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology. There are a set of required courses and clinical hours that must be met in order for you to prepare to write the certification exam and practical component. Most schools offer the opportunity to obtain these requirements making it fairly accessible nationwide. I chose to pursue my studies at Acadia University in Wolfville Nova, Scotia. Throughout my studies I was one of two Black students studying kinesiology, and I was the only Black student pursuing the CSEP certification.

Since gaining my position, I have worked with a diverse set of individuals in the ACCESS program, however, I have noticed an evident lack and presence of Black patients being referred to me despite the prevalence of cancer and other chronic conditions that affect the Black population.

Can you explain your experiences and ability to access health services?

What went well and what could go better?

Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to access appropriate healthcare services when needed and have not experienced many issues. Unfortunately, I am aware and do acknowledge that my experiences are not the same with many people within the Black community who have not been as fortunate. Because I work with the chronic disease population, I have noticed a lack of Black people being referred to me for assistance. Those who have been referred to me have commented that they had to seek further treatment on their own because their physician overlooked many things or did not take the time to discuss it with them.

I see this as a major issue, and as a healthcare professional, we should put less burden on the patient being advocates for adequate and appropriate care, which is a responsibility we must uphold and required in our chosen healthcare profession.

How have you found/finding community in your profession?

Because a lot of my work is done solo, and there are only a few Exercise Physiologist in this area, finding my community has been difficult. I am also a certified personal training, so I combine both competencies in my professional pursuits. I have found most of my community through my personal training endeavors which has been exciting in my short time in a professional capacity.

In my role as an Exercise Physiologist working with the collaborative health team, as the oncologists and other physicians learn more about my role as an Exercise Physiologist, they are seeing the benefits of my work and have are referring more clients to me for personal training as well as health and guidance for physical well-being.

I’ve been very thankful for this opportunity, as it has been my goal to bridge the gap between exercise and traditional medicine, the prescription of drugs, and prescribe exercise as a complement and major form of treatment for individuals with chronic and complex conditions. With my involvement in programs like ACCESS I believe I am on the right path!

Where can we find you?

You can find me on social media where you can see a glimpse into my life of work and fitness!

Facebook: Joy Chiekwe

IG: joychiekwe

Connecting on Social Justice and Cutting Edge Matters: Qualitative Research Rocks!

July 22, 2019 Jennifer LeBlanc Leave a Comment

By: Keisha Jefferies, PhD candidate, Dalhousie School of Nursing

This blog post incorporates a reflection from two conferences that I attended in early May, 2019. From May 2-3^rd, 2019, I attended the Robarts’ Graduate Student conference at York University, in Toronto. Then from May 9-11^th, 2019, I travelled to Fredericton, New Brunswick to attend the Qualitative Analysis (Qualitatives) conference. Each of these conferences offered a uniquely rewarding opportunity to connect with researchers, graduate students and faculty conducting socially relevant and timely research across Canada.

The Robarts’ conference theme was: Canada on the Edge? People, Places and Perspectives, which provided a forum for Graduate students to present papers that critically examined contentious or emerging hot topics in Canada. Some stimulating and thought-provoking papers included mental health amongst Afro-Caribbean youth in Toronto, an autoethnographic account of abortion access in Toronto, “Smart City” technology in rural Nova Scotia and the potential use of Acoustemological Cartography. The Robarts’ conference was a great learning experience as I was able to gain insight from other graduate students, at various levels of their programs, whose research tackles challenging, critical issues in a variety of fascinating fields.

The Qualitatives was a jam-packed, three-day qualitative learning experience. The theme of the Qualitatives this year was: The transdisciplinary efficacy of qualitative methods: Studying everyday life, the empirical tradition continues. The conference was an opportunity for qualitative researchers, across many disciplines, to come together and share critical inquiry and socially oriented research. One of the opening concurrent session themes was Constructing Identity, which included intriguing presentations on other-than-human identities, the emergence of white nationalism in Canada and a critical discourse analysis of right-wing extremist groups. These presentations were captivating and generated stimulating discussion around inclusion, racism, sexism and heteronormativity in Canada. The research on white nationalism and the toxicity brewing in these groups used discourse analysis to examine social media (Facebook groups) and websites (chatrooms) in order to gain insight into the collective ideology. Most of the quotes included in the presentation clearly depicted a very toxic, racist, sexist hegemonic and overall oppressive ideology. Kudos to the students, especially Kayla Preston, a Dal Masters student, who are doing this research and exposing the hate that continues to exist in Canada. Follow Kayla Preston on Twitter (@KaylaPreston4)!

Another highlight from the Qualitatives was the opportunity to chair a very interesting and timely session on Media Representations, related to women and their bodies. This session included presentations on the issue of prostitution and legalization in Canada, the construction of faking orgasm in women’s magazines and the promotion of the “ideal” vulva through female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS). Meghan Gosse, a PhD student at Dal, presented her very compelling and troubling Masters work that investigated how surgeon websites promote a female genital ideal to be achieved through female genital surgery. The discussion from this concurrent session raised many issues and concerns related to women’s bodies, their rights and harmful gender roles/ societal expectations that dictate and at times, prescribe what women can or should do with their bodies. Follow Meghan on Twitter (@MegGosse), as she continues this discussion on women’s bodies!

Opportunities, discussions and knowledge sharing like this is just another reason why I love qualitative inquiry!

For more information on our Johnson Scholarship Foundation opportunities please visit the Diversity section of our website.

2019 Global Health Awards Series: Faculty Leadership

July 15, 2019 Jennifer LeBlanc Leave a Comment

By: Jennifer LeBlanc, Global Health Office Outreach Coordinator

The Dr. John Savage Memorial Award for Faculty Leadership in Global Health was established in 2003 in memory of Dr. John Savage, a friend and colleague of the Dalhousie Medical School and a tireless champion of the need to promote healthy communities worldwide. A former physician, Premier of Nova Scotia and Mayor of Dartmouth, Dr. Savage had a long-standing commitment to global health projects in Africa with the Nova Scotia Gambia Association and other organizations. The Dr. Savage Memorial Award for Faculty leadership in Global Health recognizes an outstanding humanitarian contribution to global health by a Dalhousie Medical School faculty member.

Today Dr. John Savage Memorial Award is presented to Dr. Noni MacDonald. Dr. MacDonald is well known for multiple accomplishments whether it is her clinical expertise in infectious disease and vaccinology, her passion to advocate for science and research, her knowledge on the issues impacting the health care systems (locally and globally) or her extensive work in East Africa – she has touched the lives of many inside and outside of medicine.

Dr. MacDonald has been involved with MicroResearch for many years. Since 2008, MicroResearch has been improving local community focused research capacity and maternal child health in Eastern Africa through small locally driven multidisciplinary health research teams developing research projects to improve health outcomes. In 2016, what has been learned in Africa has been adapted and applied in Nova Scotia so local multidisciplinary health professional and community research teams can find local solutions to their community health problems that can work and fit the local resources, the context and culture.

Dr. Ryan Sommers, Medical Officer of Health in the Nothern Zone, assisted Dr. MacDonald with the first MicroResearch NS course held in Truro and said: “During this time I also had the opportunity to see Dr. MacDonald in action. Just after the first day, it became very evident of her passion for teaching, research and desire to help others address community health issues. I was impressed at the content of the course. Very quickly I realized how much work Noni and her colleagues put into the program and why it was successful in East Africa for so many years. I believe the MicroResearch program demonstrates the contributions and work of Dr. MacDonald, attests her leadership in global health and shows her commitments to provide research training to those in Nova Scotia and East Africa. I’m continuously impressed with Dr. MacDonald’s dedication to her important work”.

Congratulations Dr. MacDonald and thank you for your many contributions locally and globally.

For more information please visit our Global Health Awards webpage.

The First Academic Writing Bootcamp in Uganda

July 8, 2019 Jennifer LeBlanc Leave a Comment

By: Shawna O’Hearn, Director Dalhousie Global Health

From June 24 to 28, 2019 Shawna O’Hearn and Dr. Noni MacDonald facilitated a writing workshop in Uganda. Shawna has prepared the following summary of their work together.

This research has motivated me to the point I cannot explain. Thanks a lot to all mentors for the

excellent teaching. I’m born again with science. (Workshop Participant, June 2019)

In 2017, the CUHAS* in Tanzania, MUST* in Uganda, and the University of Calgary obtained a research grant to develop qualitative research capacity at CUHAS and MUST under the Synergy Program. The program enhanced the work within an already funded five-year Canadian research project through ‘Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa’ in Tanzania and Uganda.

Workshop participants from Tanzania and Uganda

The format was modeled on lessons from MicroResearch (www.microresearch.ca) and each team was assigned a coach from the University of Calgary plus one from in country. There were four in person skills development workshops focusing on planning (protocol and tool design), data collection (facilitation), analysis (coding and use of Nvivo), and data interpretation (preparation of an abstract). Each workshop was facilitated over a week by 2-3 Canadian facilitators and local experts.

There were five teams who worked together on their data analysis and manuscript preparation for three months between workshops. The goal is that each team will submit one manuscript to a journal for publication. There were two teams from Uganda (MUST) and three from Tanzania (CUHAS). The teams covered topics aligned with the IDRC* proposal including male engagement, equity, adolescent health and scale up. Each group developed a research question around the topic area relevant to implementation of the larger “Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa” in Tanzania and Uganda.

We, Noni MacDonald and Shawna O’Hearn, were invited by University of Calgary to lead a one-week academic writing bootcamp as the final workshop for this project. It was the first time for us to offer this type of workshop. On the first day, each team introduced their research question and identified their main finding, target audience(s) and three journals to consider for submission of their manuscript. A challenging piece of working in teams is identifying authors and acknowledgements based on the ICJME guidelines. After participants completed this activity, they worked on the methods section in the manuscript.

Dr. Noni MacDonald teaching

We also shared Dalhousie Global Health’s experience and success of creating writing communities and the effectiveness of using the Pomodoro technique. The teams were already identifying how to formalize writing communities for their work. On the last day, each team presented their manuscript status and received feedback to move forward.

Group presentation

It was a fast week filled with important discussions about strengthening health research for the Ugandan and Tanzanian teams. We are excited to read the published work as they will have a significant impact on health service delivery and MNCH* in East Africa. Stay tuned…. we will keep you posted when publications are available and when we do the next academic writing bootcamp!

Ugandan colleague receiving certificate

*Catholic University of Health Allied Sciences (CUHAS)
*Mbarara University of Science Technology (MUST)
*International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
*Maternal and Child Health (MNCH)

Global Health Through the Lens: 2019 Photo Contest

July 2, 2019 Jennifer LeBlanc Leave a Comment

By: Jen LeBlanc, Global Health Office Outreach Coordinator

Each year the global health office at Dalhousie coordinates a photo contest to recognize and celebrate the many beautiful images that are shared with our office during the year. Entrants are judged on the artistic and visual appeal of their images as well as the accompanying story. These stories are intended to convey the connection to global health and highlight the importance of ethical images, especially in healthcare settings.

There is no denying that photography has significant power to influence and, in the context of global development, it is important to appreciate its potential benefits and burdens. Ethical images inform and invite meaningful reflection, they respect the dignity, values and positive developmental capabilities of others. Within the framework of social justice an ethical image documents the complexities of social, economic and political context.

With that in mind, we present the 2019 photo contest winners! Congratulations to Jonathan Oore and Kalkidan Gebre and thank you to all who participated.

2nd Place

The Green Team by Jonathan Oore

“In a rural hospital in Ifakara, Tanzania medical students surround a surgeon removing a patient’s gallbladder. Like in Canada, the OR is home to multiple “learners,” all at different levels. Also, like Canada, there’s warm camaraderie among those doing the learning. While these types of surgeries are bread and butter of general surgery in Canada, in Ifakara, they occur only a handful of times a year. It was unique to see the operation performed non-laparoscopically and with manual ventilation: physical resources in this rural centre were different (compared to Canada). And care continues.”

1st Place

The Window of Hope by Kallkidan Gebre

“HIV does not exist as a discrete entity but rather it is constantly interacting with social and political challenges including stigma, poverty, culture, and religion. Health care professionals at PASADA intervene on social and institutional determinants of health and act on structural barriers to provide holistic care for their clients.

Accessible and affordable healthcare for individuals and families impacted by HIV/AIDS in Dar es salaam, Tanzania gives them a window of hope for a brighter future.”

Do you have outstanding photos that tell a compelling story about your global health experience? Please consider submitting to the 2020 photo contest; open to students, residents, faculty and staff at Dalhousie.