Nuanced Models
(Asynchronous)
Music Performance as a Means to Improve Wellness of Healthcare Practitioners View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Matthew Brooks
Direct exposure to and involvement in music, as well as other arts and humanities, has been empirically confirmed to positively impact both personal qualities and the prevention of burnout in medical students and physicians. With an increasing focus on stress management, burnout, and suicide prevention among medical providers, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Nebraska at Omaha (USA) formed a partnership in the summer of 2018 to create the Nebraska Medical Orchestra. The orchestra is open to all faculty, staff, and students at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine, its clinical partner. After seeing the impressive interest in the NMO, and hearing calls for other musical opportunities, the singing group “Doc’Apella” was formed at UNMC. Other musical groups began to emerge across campus for students, faculty, and staff as a result of these initial partnerships. Two studies have taken place measuring the benefits of participating in Doc’Apella and Nebraska Medical Orchestra, including perceived reduction in the symptoms of stress and burnout among the participants. This paper highlights the Music & Medicine initiatives at UNMC, addressing how to build and sustain programs like these at other institutions. It also considers the positive impact of participation in a musical group with fellow health care colleagues and how it can build teamwork, enhance relationships, and positively influence the culture of an institution. Quantitative and qualitative data are presented to demonstrate the success of using music performance initiatives to improve wellness of healthcare practitioners.
Weighing the Benefits of Adopting a Health Equity Lens for the Provision of Recreation Services: A Canadian Perspective of Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Martha Barnes, Sarah Ane, Julie Stevens, Carol Phillips
Recreational opportunities offer many benefits at both an individual and community level. In particular, participating in recreation has numerous benefits such as improved physical and mental health; reduced healthcare costs, positive choices for youth, enhanced social interactions, and the overall opportunity to enhance one’s quality of life. Municipal recreation departments are responsible for a significant portion of recreation provision in Canada and traditionally approach this responsibility from an economic perspective – offering programs and services which maintain balanced budgets. We propose approaching recreation provision from a health equity lens as an alternative that emphasizes the health and well-being of community members over the economic stability of the department. In Ontario, Canada during COVID-19, municipal recreation departments operated at significantly reduced capacities due to mandated facility closures for extended periods in accordance with Public Health Measures. As public health restrictions began lifting, municipal recreation departments resumed operation at varying levels and speeds. Factors such as departmental capacity, political support, financial resources and values influenced municipalities and their re-opening plans. Drawing upon a data-based vignettes approach, which identifies key exemplars, policy recommendations for how and why the municipal recreation sector might adopt a health equity lens to critically reframe community services are shared.
Implementing an Incident Management System in Response to COVID-19: Response and Evaluation View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tina Benevides, Kerrie Lalonde
TheFamilyHelpNetwork.ca (HANDS), is a not-for-profit organization, located in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, that offers a variety of services to support children, youth, adults with a developmental disability and their families. In response to the global pandemic and the shift from in-person to virtual services, HANDS implemented an Incident Management System (IMS) to guide a coordinated response and to facilitate communication and education. The IMS COVID-19 Pandemic Response and Evaluation Report was developed by the IMS Recovery and Executive teams at HANDS. The document outlines how decisions were made during each phase of the pandemic, including an emphasis on decision-making for the recovery plan. This report documents the strategies and tools that Hands has developed and implemented to assist staff, clients, and families with the adjustment of transitioning to virtual service delivery and the return to in-person and/or in-office service provision while adhering to all Ministry directives related to Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) and Public Health measures. This report also details successful strategies, lessons learned, and considerations of areas for future development in relation to the implementation of the IMS and ongoing pandemic planning at the agency. This was necessary to inform the development of a strategic pandemic plan; to identify potential adaptation to roles and structure of the IMS, and to understand the lived experiences of agency staff from March 2020 – December 2020. The Pandemic and Evaluation report reflects on key strategies that were successful to support HANDS’ pandemic response and implementation of IMS structure.
Risks and Rewards of Employing Traditional Healers in South Africa's Fight Against TB
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session A. K. Anderson
This paper focuses on the interaction between the biomedical establishment of South Africa and the country’s sangoma (religious healers) in the context of the ongoing tuberculosis threat. While some work has been done on this issue in the form of studies of specific regions of South Africa, my objective is to present a synoptic, country-wide overview. The relevance of the topic is multifaceted. Before COVID, South Africa was already in a three-pronged battle against TB, as it dealt not only with tuberculosis itself, but also with HIV/TB coinfection and multi-drug resistant TB. By having to devote so much attention to the pandemic, the health system has lost both resources and focus for this struggle against TB. While the sangoma are viewed with suspicion by many in the world of biomedicine, they are trusted and sought out by large numbers of the population. As such, there are roles they can play in the country’s attempt to eradicate this disease. This essay is based on my work in the field of religion and medicine, applying theory regarding the relation between Pre-Axial traditions and modernity as well as literature review to the topic. The paper acknowledges potential problems regarding the health system embracing these traditional healers—it is because of such problems that there has been interest in the government issuing regulations regarding sangoma practices. Yet, despite these factors I argue that the sangoma should be utilized in this fight, given the status they hold in the broader society.
Towards an Understanding of Pandemics in Art: Renaissance – Baroque Art View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alan Garfield
Ever since the 1347 plague (what Roosen and Green’s 2020 bibliography on the state of Black Death research in the era of COVID-19 called Mother of All Pandemics) arrived on the doorstep of Boccaccio (the 34-year-old struggling writer living at home in Florence with his parents), pandemics have become a strange, perplexing stepchild of the arts. As a serial, cyclical repeater, plagues (flu, diseases, and viruses in various forms) have affected individuals and entire armies, artists and nobility. In art, its iconography has developed a contrasting expression of hope and hopelessness. With our own Covid-19 in mind, we will look back to examine how various Italian Quattrocento thru Seicento and Northern Renaissance to Baroque artists have dealt with the subject of a deadly, mysterious pandemic. We will view work, among others, by Piero della Francesca, Albrecht Durer, Titian, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Salvador Rosa and Sr. Caterina de Julianis.
Breast Cancer, Mana'olana/Hope, and the Experience of Native Hawaiian Women View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Karla M. Calumet, PhD,MHA
Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among women. A diagnosis of cancer is a stressful event that requires an individual to adapt to new stressors. The purpose of this qualitative study is to better understand the perceptions of Mana’olana/hope and living with breast cancer among Native Hawaiian women. The conceptual framework of this phenomenological study was positive psychology. Data collection included in-depth interviews with 5 Native Hawaiian women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Data coding and analysis resulted in the identification of 8 themes. Results may be used by health psychologists, cancer treatment practitioners, and the field of biobehavioral oncology to support and improve the well-being and health outcomes of women diagnosed with breast cancer.
