Enhancing the Facilitation of Interprofessional Education Programs: An Institutional Ethnography.

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) among health care professionals has been identified as essential to enhance patient care. Interprofessional education (IPE) is a key strategy towards promoting IPC. Several factors including the nature of facilitation shape the IPE experience and outcomes for students. Stereotypes held by students have been recognized as a challenge for IPE and IPC. This study aimed to explore institutional rules and regulations that shape facilitators' work in IPE interactions problematized by students' stereotypes at a university in Atlantic Canada. Employing institutional ethnography as a method of investigation, data were collected through observations, interviews, focus groups, and written texts (such as course syllabi). Participants included three facilitators, two undergraduate nursing students, and two IPE committee members of an IPE program. Findings revealed four work processes conducted by facilitators in local IPE settings related to students' stereotypes. These processes were shaped by translocal discourse and included the work used to form teams, facilitate student introductions to team members, facilitate team dynamics, and provide course content and context. Study results included the identification of several strategies to address student stereotypes and enhance collaboration, including directions for future curriculum decisions and the pedagogical organization of IPE.

Maternal Knowing and Social Networks: Understanding First-Time Mothers' Search for Information and Support Through Online and Offline Social Networks.

The postpartum period is an exciting yet stressful time for first-time mothers, and although the experience may vary, all mothers need support during this crucial period. In Canada, there has been a shift for universal postpartum services to be offered predominantly online. However, due to a paucity of literature, it is difficult to determine the degree to which mothers' needs are being effectively addressed. The aim of this study was to examine and understand how first-time mothers accessed support and information (online and offline) during the first 6 months of their postpartum period. Using feminist poststructuralism methodology, data were collected from focus groups and e-interviews, and analyzed using discourse analysis. Findings indicate that peer support is greatly valued, and mothers often use social media to make in-person social connections. Findings highlight how accessing support and information is socially and institutionally constructed and provide direction for health professionals to provide accessible postpartum care.

Choosing nursing as a career: a narrative analysis of Millennial nurses' career choice of virtue.

The growth and sustainability of the nursing profession depends on the ability to recruit and retain the upcoming generation of professionals. Understanding the career choice experiences and professional expectations of Millennial nurses (born 1980 or after) is a critical component of recruitment and retention strategies. This study utilized Polkinghorne's interpretive, narrative approach to understand how Millennial nurses explain, account for and make sense of their choice of nursing as a career. The positioning of nursing as a virtuous choice was both temporally and contextually influenced. The decision to enter the profession was initially emplotted around a traditional understanding of nursing as a virtuous profession: altruistic, noble, caring and compassionate. The centricity of virtues depicts one-dimensional understanding of the nursing profession that alone could prove dissatisfying to a generation of professionals who have many career choices available to them. The narratives reveal how participants' perceptions and expectations remain influenced by a stereotypical understanding of nursing, an image that remains prevalent in society and which holds implications for the future recruitment, socialization and retention strategies for upcoming and future generations of nurses.