SHS Bulletin
School of Health Studies
March / April 2016
Moving Forward by Looking Back
I would not recommend this if you are walking around campus or driving in your car but as the 2015-16 academic term comes to a close, it is important that we reflect upon our achievements and challenges over the past year as we prepare for next year and the future.
I am very excited to report that we are finally whole again in the main office! Joining the School of Health Studies as our new academic counsellor is Wendy Latimer. Wendy comes to us from Brescia College and brings a wealth of counselling experience to the role. Welcome Wendy! We are looking forward, as the administrative unit of the School, to helping you, our faculty, be as effective as you can be and our students achieve their best Western experience.
Our students had excellent learning experiences over the past year (more on that below!) but a few challenges. Working together, we have endeavoured to develop a program that prepares students for the field of health and health care. As the health landscape changes we must ensure that our students are capable of adjusting to these changes, ensure that our degree develops a future-ready health science student.
Our research and scholarship continues to make significant advances in health awareness by individuals, local communities, government and internationally. We are confronting through our research, the challenges facing health care, seeking innovative approaches to supporting our research and delivering health information to those populations who need it most.
Hail & Health,
Dan Belliveau
I am very excited to report that we are finally whole again in the main office! Joining the School of Health Studies as our new academic counsellor is Wendy Latimer. Wendy comes to us from Brescia College and brings a wealth of counselling experience to the role. Welcome Wendy! We are looking forward, as the administrative unit of the School, to helping you, our faculty, be as effective as you can be and our students achieve their best Western experience.
Our students had excellent learning experiences over the past year (more on that below!) but a few challenges. Working together, we have endeavoured to develop a program that prepares students for the field of health and health care. As the health landscape changes we must ensure that our students are capable of adjusting to these changes, ensure that our degree develops a future-ready health science student.
Our research and scholarship continues to make significant advances in health awareness by individuals, local communities, government and internationally. We are confronting through our research, the challenges facing health care, seeking innovative approaches to supporting our research and delivering health information to those populations who need it most.
Thank you to everyone for working together this year academic year, making it a great journey. I am looking forward to the next one!
Hail & Health,
Dan Belliveau
"Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference"
Robert Frost
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Research and Scholarly Endeavours
Our Newest Scholar
Dr. Lorie Donelle has been selected for the 2016-2018 Faculty Scholar Award! Lorie is jointly appointed in the Schools of Health Studies and Nursing. This is a wonderful achievement! Congratulations Lorie on this highly deserved recognition!
Our Recent Publications
MacDonald M, Pauly B, Wong G, Schick-Makaroff K, van Roode T, Strosher HW, Kothari A, Valaitis R, Manson H, O'Briain W, Carroll S, Lee V, Tong S, Smith KD, Ward M. Supporting successful implementation of public health interventions: protocol for a realist synthesis. Systematic Reviews. 2016 Apr 7; 5(1):54.
Gagliardi AR, Berta W, Kothari A, Boyko J, Urquhart R. Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) in health care: a scoping review. Implementation Science. 2016 Mar 17; 11(1):38.
Uppal G, Sibbald SL, Melling J. Exploring diabetes management amongst immigrant Sikhs in the Greater Toronto Area: a qualitative study. Ethnicity & Health. 2016 Mar 7:1-13.
Salter KL, Kothari A. Knowledge 'Translation' as social learning: negotiating the uptake of research-based knowledge in practice. BMC Medical Education. 2016 Feb 29; 16(1):76.
* My apologies to those whose recent publications I may have overlooked (please send them along!)
Gagliardi AR, Berta W, Kothari A, Boyko J, Urquhart R. Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) in health care: a scoping review. Implementation Science. 2016 Mar 17; 11(1):38.
Uppal G, Sibbald SL, Melling J. Exploring diabetes management amongst immigrant Sikhs in the Greater Toronto Area: a qualitative study. Ethnicity & Health. 2016 Mar 7:1-13.
Salter KL, Kothari A. Knowledge 'Translation' as social learning: negotiating the uptake of research-based knowledge in practice. BMC Medical Education. 2016 Feb 29; 16(1):76.
* My apologies to those whose recent publications I may have overlooked (please send them along!)
Protecting Our Marginalized Populations
The internationally recognized research by Treena Orchard working to protect and enhance the lives of vulnerable and marginalized populations of our communities has been awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grant. Treena is a co-investigator along with colleagues in British Columbia on a CIHR grant titled, "The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act: A structural intervention impacting health equity for sex workers". A brief synopsis of her team's work can be read here.
Preventing Ethical Errors
The South West Health Ethics Network (SWHEN) is hosting an event on campus. Dr. Shannon Sibbald is a founding member of SWHEN, and the network received funding through our own faculty research development grant. The event, which takes place April 22 is open to all. The focus is quality improvement to reduce ethical errors in care transitions. Shannon has asked that we help circulate this opportunity to colleagues or community partners who may be interested. See below for more information or contact Shannon directly.
Making Wellness Count
On March 31, Dr. Shauna Burke was part of a panel of experts who presented findings on workplace wellness at the Human Resources Professionals Association, London and District chapter event.
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GRAC Corner
On March 22, several of our Health Studies member-supervised graduate students presented at the annual Faculty of Health Sciences Research day. The event was a great success. I would like to thank the GRAC committee and in particular Shannon Sibbald for putting together the list of our graduate students and sharing among us all. Supporting our students and their research programs is a key element to our mentoring roles.
Please send along any updates regarding the efforts of your graduate students in promoting research and scholarship. Graduate students, please do not hesitate to do some self-promotion!
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Innovations in Education
Innovating to Success!
Congratulations to Dr. Shauna Burke for being awarded the Marilyn Robinson Award for Excellence in Teaching. Shauna's diverse use of relevant video, discussions postings, health bites (student-relevant health information) and even student-led yoga breaks has inspired the budding health scientists in all her students. As many of you know, Shauna does all of this in a class of 500!
THANK YOU! Thank you to each of you who took it upon yourself to engage in continuous quality improvement in your teaching and in student learning. Your effort in the classroom this past academic year has been greatly appreciated by our students. You are working to help students connect their learning to the priority issues in our society related to health. Please find below a sampling of the innovations that were shared with me during the academic year.
Community Engaged Learning
Community engaged learning opportunities in courses like Aleksandra Zecevic's Gerontology in Practice and Lorie Donelle's Health Communication tremendously enhance our student experience. The collaboration with community partners was celebrated last Friday (April 8) during Western's Student Success Centre's annual Partner Appreciation Lunch where faculty, students and community members celebrated the valuable learning experience encountered with CEL.
Community Engage Learning Showcase
If you would like to learn more about CEL, please consider attending the Community Engaged Learning Showcase taking place on Thursday, May 12, 2016 at Clarie Hall Mercato, Brescia University College.This is a great opportunity to see the diversity of community organizations involved with Western to enhance student learning. Questions? Contact cel@uwo.ca
Community Engage Learning Showcase
If you would like to learn more about CEL, please consider attending the Community Engaged Learning Showcase taking place on Thursday, May 12, 2016 at Clarie Hall Mercato, Brescia University College.This is a great opportunity to see the diversity of community organizations involved with Western to enhance student learning. Questions? Contact cel@uwo.ca
Evoking Empathy Lab
Active learning strategies such as Aleksandra Zecevic's novel Empathy lab in our Aging Body course allowed students to work together to create a unique and exciting aging simulation experience that will see its way beyond the walls of Western.The labs were showcased during March Break Open house to rave reviews by interested high school students and their parents. The value of the engaged learning on students while developing these labs was described in a recent Western News article.
More of our colleagues are offering blended learning environments for our students such as Debbie Fitzsimmons (Innovations in Health Care), Shannon Sibbald (Determinant of Health & Disease), and Andrew Johnson (Measurement and Analysis). There is truly great innovation taking place in the classroom by our faculty.
Enhancing Aging Information
Intriguing assignment tasks such as Aging infographics were part of our introductory Health Issues in Aging course taught by Marie Savundranayagam. Student teams developed infographics describing several important priority issues in aging. The comment below sent to Marie demonstrates the impact this type of information can have on the population.
Kelsey Heinze
Associate Director of Membership & Social Media
The Gerontological Society of America
"I am blown away by these infographics. Absolutely fantastic! I am saving each one as you re-tweet them to add to our CIAW Facebook album next week. Congratulations on a seamless integration of gerontology and social media, this is truly remarkable."
Kelsey Heinze
Associate Director of Membership & Social Media
The Gerontological Society of America
Stressful Issues
Students in Marnie Wedlake's Understanding Stress course used innovative venues to deliver information about significant issues that impact the stress and anxiety of individuals. A couple examples of student ingenuity to approach very difficult subjects include using PowToon to explore Death Anxiety and a video describing the trauma associated with childhood sexual abuse.
Information for Rehabilitation - Musculoskeletal Disorders
Emily Knight's Musculoskeletal disorders class created several informative pieces that target key disorders that require rehabilitation. A few examples include:
- Instagram account describing ACL injuries
- Instagram account describing Deltoid Ligament injuries
- Updated wikipedia page describing Spondylolysis to include evidence-based information
- YouTube video survival guide to Shoulder (GH) dislocations
A New Class for New Times
In it second offering, Social Media and Health, instructed this year by Gillian Mandich has hit it big on social media. Of course, that should be expected in a course about using social media. However, Gillian's students have taken it to a new level with nearly 200,000 twitter users weekly and being picked up in the Gazette describing the tremendous success of reaching out with health information.
Why is Gillian so good in this course? Check out her own use of social media at Gillianmandich.com!
Why is Gillian so good in this course? Check out her own use of social media at Gillianmandich.com!
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Saladifying Thursday
We had a great turn out to our last Souper Thursday event of the season. We are forging ahead with a more spring and summer like fare -- SALADS! Our first totally Saladifying Thursday will happen on Thursday May 5th where we will enjoy a couple of fresh salads and great company. Mark your calendars and I'll see you in our Collective Restoration space (ie. lunch room)!
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Keep it Coming!
I hope this newsletter becomes a means to celebrate our successes. This document represents us all so please send along anything that deserves to be mentioned and/or recognized; be they publications, conference acceptances, new graduate student trainees, media, notes or anything else you would like to share. I hope you find the SHS Bulletin a good reminder of the collective innovation and productivity of our School.
About Us
Email: shsinfo@uwo.ca
Website: http://www.uwo.ca/fhs/shs/
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