health care education

New nursing simulation project promotes gender-affirming care for 2SLGTBQIA+ community

siddiq22 — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 17:06:07 +0000

New nursing simulation project promotes gender-affirming care for 2SLGTBQIA+ community

siddiq22 Thu, 06/29/2023 - 13:06

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Nursing student Richard Tang (centre) with Laura Fairley (left) and Erica Cambly, assistant professors in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing (photo by Neal MacInnes)

Rebecca Biason

Topic

Our Community

Experiential Learning

health care education

Simulation

Health

Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

LGBTQ

Richard Tang, a student in the Master of Nursing program at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, has led the co-creation of a new simulation – a type of experiential learning – for undergraduate nursing students that is focused on providing specialized care to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Tang, who recently won the poster competition at the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) Conference for the project, was motivated to create the new simulation to bring queer health to the forefront of the nursing curriculum.

“Gender dysphoria is an ingrained conceptualization in the care that is sometimes provided to the transgender community, and we wanted to shift that perspective among our nursing students,” Tang says.

Learning in a simulation environment, adds Tang, provides students and educators a chance to understand best practices for trans care and identify pre-existing assumptions and biases without harming or traumatizing a patient.

The new simulation module takes place in the community health unit of the Bloomberg Nursing Simulation Lab, which can be transformed into a home care setting.

Faculty collaborators, including Laura Fairley and Erica Cambly – both assistant professors – helped to create the simulation environment that features a client who is a trans man recovering from top/chest surgery at home.

Using a state-of-the art mannequin complete with drainage tubes and the ability to speak (voiced by Fairley), students learn how to look after the client through what Tang describes as a joyous approach to care.

The project used a mannequin to simulate post-operative recovery from chest surgery (photo by Richard Tang)

Students must also address some of the complex challenges that arise for their client, which include management of post-operative complications, lack of access to a primary care provider, as well as the need to address additional social determinants of health.

“In all of our current work in the simulation lab, we lay a solid theoretical groundwork for students to learn how to provide trans-competent care,” says Fairley, who is a nurse with extensive experience caring for people recovering from transition-related surgeries.

“What is unique about this new simulation is that it goes beyond the theoretical and allows for students to visibly challenge cisnormativity and recognize that trans health care is ubiquitous in all types of nursing.”

Fairley further points out that members of the trans community experience significant discrimination when attempting to access transition-related medical care, but with Toronto considered a national hub for transition services, this is a specific type of knowledge that nurses will need to know – whether in primary care, the ER, acute care, or home-care settings across the province.

Creating this type of simulation requires intense collaboration – from the development of the storyline and preparatory materials, to the input of community members that it impacts.

In addition to Cambly and Fairley’s expertise in simulation learning and trans health care, a member of the trans community was also invited to review the simulation for accuracy alongside community-health nurses with expertise in transition-related care.

Cambly, who leads the simulation curriculum in the faculty, says that the clear standards and best practices for developing a simulation – which include looking for hidden biases and ensuring that there are clear learning objectives – are what help make a new simulation rollout successful.

She says this particular simulation was piloted with first- and second-year students in the undergraduate nursing program, with students being given an opportunity to debrief and provide feedback about how the simulation flowed, and what could be done better.

“I think one of the things we noticed during the pilot was that the students were really pleased we were doing this work and making this simulation available to all students,” Cambly says.

“Some of our students are living with transphobia, or have seen examples of it in their everyday life, and they see how important this knowledge is for health-care providers.”

The new simulation will likely be ready to be added to the 2023-2024 nursing curriculum – an important step in ensuring students are well-equipped to provide equitable and inclusive health care.

For Tang, the opportunity to blend his passion for teaching and learning with a chance to make a positive impact for students and the queer community is rewarding.

“I’m reassured that we are headed in the right direction in achieving these community-practice goals,” Tang says.

“We are not only making positive changes to the curriculum, but also addressing the diverse needs of the populations we serve.”

'Accidental Intellectual' podcast sets out to personalize health care and humanize academia

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 15:59:06 +0000

'Accidental Intellectual' podcast sets out to personalize health care and humanize academia

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 03/10/2020 - 11:59

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Accidental Intellectual team (from left to right): Bronwyn Lamond, Harrison McNaughtan, Ariana Simone, Stephanie Morris, Lee Propp and Rachael Lyon (photo by Perry King)

Perry King

Topic

Our Community

health care education

Graduate Students

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

On the second floor of the University of Toronto building that houses the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), inside one of the larger library study rooms, a small group of PhD students are hard at work. But they’re not exactly studying.

Wires surround them, microphones are tested and ready. The six-person team, a newly-assembled production crew, are preparing to produce their next episode of the “Accidental Intellectual” podcast, which typically features conversations about success and setbacks with ��οstudents and faculty.

Launched this fall by co-host Lee Propp, the podcast set out to personalize health care with the tagline “humans behind the experts.” Seeking out movers and shakers in the health-care space, the team wanted to show a side of an academic that is rarely seen – something beyond their ideas and their contributions to society.

“We’ve heard from a number of the interviews we’ve done already that breaking down that wall of the dispassionate, far-removed clinician is the key to connecting with patients and clients [and] conveying empathy, which are all really important to being a good clinician,” says Propp, a PhD student in the school and clinical child psychology program.

From Jeffrey Ansloos, an assistant professor in OISE’s department of applied psychology and human development, to Julia Hanigsberg, the president and CEO of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, the show seeks to highlight people that students look up to and who they may think have never failed at anything in their life.

“Far from it,” says Propp. “They have been falling flat on their face, probably more times than you have. And they’ve picked themselves up and started again.”

As someone who grew up not liking school, Propp sees herself going on her own accidental adventure. In the Globe and Mail, Propp wrote in 2018 that she’s had to overcome many personal challenges and disclosed that she had undiagnosed ADHD.

“Finishing my first degree was, you know, a feat in and of itself,” says Propp, whose PhD focus is on the biological and psychological underpinnings of disruptive behaviour disorders in children.

“Now on my third [degree], I think it’s come a real full circle.”

Propp quickly assembled a team with a variety of skills – from media production to interviewing – and who are able to play off each other’s strengths. Propp praises Bronwyn Lamond, a co-host, for her masterful organizational skills.

Drawing inspiration and training tips from podcasters like Ira Glass, the host of “This American Life,” the team wants to continue growing in the short term.The first season will run until June and the team will be back for a second season next September, with episodes available on podcast apps.

The team also plans on doing live podcast recordings and interactive conversations on social media.

In the meantime, the team has learned new and surprising things about their guests.

“It’s been so surprising what we’ve learned about these people,” says Lamond, a second-year PhD student in school and clinical child psychology. “We’re strangers to everyone, but asking and having so many people say yes immediately to being on the podcast alone – and then getting really deep into these personal stories – has been really eye opening.”

Standardized Patient Program

sgupta — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 13:11:26 +0000

Standardized Patient Program sgupta Thu, 08/23/2018 - 09:11

URL

https://spp.utoronto.ca

health care education

New nursing simulation project promotes gender-affirming care for 2SLGTBQIA+ community

'Accidental Intellectual' podcast sets out to personalize health care and humanize academia

Standardized Patient Program

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