Seminars

Growing Patient and Family Engagement in Child Health Research

Dr. Karen Beattie, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics; Co-Chair, Family Advisory Council, Hamilton Health Sciences

Active and meaningful collaboration with patients and families is becoming more familiar – and required – in research. Still, many have questions about the who/what/when/why and how of engagement. In this session, Dr. Karen Beattie will share her knowledge and experiences as a researcher, parent, family advocate and engagement leader, outlining a framework, strategies, and resources for successful engagement. As the Department of Pediatrics begins to build a platform for patient and family engagement in child health research, we also want to hear from you – our research teams – as to what tools and supports would be helpful for engagement of patients and families in your own work. Join us for this important conversation!

Revamping the Pediatric Social History: Identifying Gaps in Learners Comfort and Consistency in Social History Taking and an Approach to Improving the Pediatric Social History Taking Model at McMaster

Dr. Alexandra Nieuwesteeg, PGY2

Supervisors: Dr. Julia Frei & Dr. Brittany Anne Howson-Jan

First, I will be completing a literature review to assess what is already being done in terms of streamlining pediatric social histories. 
Then, I will be assessing residents comfort and consistency in asking sensitive questions in a social history through a formal, anonymized survey. 

The end goal is to create a mnemonic, similar to a SHADESS history for social history taking in the pediatric setting in an attempt to standardize this process and increase learners comfort in asking sensitive topics as well as reducing bias by making these a set of routinely asked questions in most pediatric settings. 

Learning Objectives:

1. What information/teaching is currently provided to learners around social history taking in paediatrics 
2. Identifying gaps and inconsistencies in our comfort levels of asking certain sensitive questions in paediatric social history taking 

Empowering Next-Generation Researchers in Perinatal and Child Health (ENRICH)

Dr. Melissa Parker, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics & ENRICH Centre Leader

The recently launched ENRICH platform (a re-envisioning of the former Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist Program) aims to build national capacity for child health research through training, awards, and mentorship opportunities. An established researcher serves as the ENRICH Centre Leader in each of the 16 Pediatric Academic centres. Locally, Dr. Melissa Parker serves in this role and will provide an overview of the ENRICH Platform and available opportunities.

Within the Enrichment Program, PILLAR aims to launch academic researchers. In 2023, the Department of Pediatrics will be supporting participation of two early career faculty members in PILLAR. With expressions of interest due internally November 30, 2022, this is a great opportunity to learn more and ask questions.

Building a social prescription intervention: a mixed methods study

Dr. Celia Kwan, PGY2

Supervisor: Dr. Gita Wahi

The Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) are defined by the World Health Organization as: “conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age”. Social prescription describes the referral of patients to social or community services to address these SDoH and unmet social needs, and improve their wellbeing and health. In a 2016 policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) highlighted the importance of addressing unmet social needs in pediatric clinical encounters. However, there is a a paucity of research that measures these social prescriptions’ impact on health outcomes. Hence, we would like to work with the families at the McMaster Children’s Hospital to identify feasible strategies to screen for and address unmet social needs, which may ultimately improve the health trajectory of marginalized children. We will be doing a two phase, sequential explanatory mixed methods study.

Objectives:

1. Review the social determinants of health in pediatrics and the current status of what is known about social prescriptions
2. Discuss the process of a mixed methods study

Interrupted Time Series

Dr. Lawrence Mbuagbaw, Associate Professor, Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact

Difficult Conversations in Child Maltreatment: Assessing Communication Skills in Pediatric Residents 

Dr. Michelle Wooldridge, PGY2

Supervisors: Dr. Brittany Anne Howson-Jan & Dr. Kathleen Nolan

There is a paucity of information in the literature regarding the use of simulation in medical education for the purposes of assessing communication skills, particularly in the area of child maltreatment. We are designing a project in which we will recruit pediatric residents to undergo teaching and simulation in a randomized fashion at which time they will be assessed using the Kalamazoo framework. We aim to understand if our teaching intervention, the simulation experience or both, help improve communication skills. We will also survey residents to explore their thoughts before and after their participation.

Objectives:

1. Understand the current status of what is known about simulation for assessment of communication skills in child maltreatment.
2. Explore our current study design and understand our aims and objectives.
3. Participate in discussion about improvement opportunities in our design/future directions.

Assessment of the Barriers to Care Amongst Street-Involved Youth in Hamilton, Ontario

Dr. Orianna Mak, PGY2

Supervisor: Dr. Ania Van Meer

It is widely known that street-involved youth face a myriad of negative health-related outcomes relative to their housed counterparts. The proposed project will therefore seek to understand the self-identified barriers to care amongst street-involved youth in Hamilton. I will be presenting my research proposal for this qualitative assessment and seeking feedback on the study design.

Objectives:

1. Understand some of the negative health-related outcomes associated with street-involvement amongst youth.
2. Develop an understanding of integrated knowledge translation and its importance.

Maternity Experiences Behind Bars: Exploring Incarcerated Indigenous Women’s Reproductive and Maternal-Child Health

Dr. Christine Wang, PGY2

Supervisors: Drs. Anne Niec, Fiona Kouyoumdjian, & Jennifer Leason

Due to ongoing systemic racism and oppression, socio-economic marginalization, and impacts of colonialism, Indigenous women account for half of the female population in Canadian federal prisons. My presentation will outline our mixed methods approach and scoping review search strategy seeking to identify policies, initiatives and best practices that meet sexual and reproductive rights of incarcerated Indigenous women in Canada, USA, New Zealand and Australia, along with their lived experiences surrounding maternal-child health.

Objectives:

1. To discuss how a mixed methods approach with quantitative, qualitative and community-based participatory measures can be adopted to explore incarcerated Indigenous women’s sexual, reproductive, and maternal child experiences, needs, strengths and priorities as they relate to gender, wellness, and trauma
2. To explore how we decolonize previous public health research through a trauma and violence informed lens to illuminate incarcerated women’s experiences related to their strength and resilience, culture and contexts surrounding social and moral determinants of health