Virtual Quilt: Reflection

As educators in healthcare, we encourage our students to reflect on their practice and experiences in a classroom (physical or virtual) or in a clinical setting. As an educator taking the time to complete reflection on new learnings, teaching experiences and professional development, it allows one to strengthen their core values as a professional, become…

Clinical Teaching Strategies for Nurse Educators in Mental Health Nursing

Getting Started Nursing school curriculum is designed to ensure students have the, “knowledge, skills and personal attributes to meet provincial and national regulatory and practical requirements of the [nursing] profession” (Canadian Nurses Association, 2017). Student nurse(s) (SN) are faced with anxiety and stress due to the overwhelming academic workload demanded by the educational institutes and…

A Look at Simulation in Healthcare

A Look at Simulation in Healthcare Education in health disciplines is dynamic and requires creative and effective ways to provide learners with enriched learning opportunities, while incorporating changes influenced by research, technology and system demands. The pedagogical tool of simulation has become a popular strategy to meet the growing needs of learners, patients’ well-beings and…

Hope, Acceptance and Equality

There is a profound behavioural divide in our society’s attitude between ‘disease of the body’ and ‘disease of the mind.’ It is well researched that physical and mental health are fundamentally connected and have significant impact on the quality of life one has, as well as the demands on financial strain on the healthcare system…

Is e-mental health the future?

Those who are in need of access to Canada’s mental health system are faced with long wait-lists, limited access to resources, high costs, geographical barriers, and social stigma preventing these individuals from seeking help. These challenges are to be combatted with the innovation of Canada’s e-mental health. This new approach is transforming the way care…

Mental Illness: A vulnerable population

Individuals living with mental illness are deemed a vulnerable segment of our population as they are at an increased risk of physical, emotional, psychological, and socioeconomic harm compared to others who do not share the same affliction. There are many health consequences that affect this population such as: Lower life expectancy Increased chance of chronic…

Chronic illness: Schizophrenia

As described in a previous post, the definition of health requires an update to include the realization that individuals in society are living longer and with chronic disease. With this change, it is also imperative to look at how chronic health impacts our communities and health care system. British Columbia’s Ministry of Health along with…

A Society Impacted by Addictions: A Multilayer Investigation

In 2016, 931 British Columbians died as a result of an opioid overdose (Vancouver Police Department (VPD), 2017). In 2015 nearly 15k calls were made to B.C. Ambulance & Fire to respond to overdoses and that increased to nearly 24k in 2016 (VPD, 2017). The epidemic experienced in B.C. can be examined through a social-ecological…

Changes: harm reduction and addictions

The opioid epidemic in British Columbia was officially announced early in 2016. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated event, as overdoses and deaths related to opioid use continue to rise across Canada (Lum, 2017). Although there currently is no government mandated solution to solve this catastrophic aftermath, there have been many positive services, supports, and…

Addiction and a multilevel health approach

In the next three blogs, I will be looking at the population of individuals facing addiction challenges; specifically, those impacted by the recent opioid crisis that British Columbia has encountered. This blog post will introduce the challenges these individuals are faced with on a multilevel scale. The second blog will focus on harm reduction and…