A Bioethical Consideration of End of Life Care

This project is a thesis on the bioethical considerations involved in moving a terminally ill patient to End of Life Care, commonly known as comfort care. Literature reviews have been carefully integrated, as well as a thorough investigation on the foundational structure involved in making morally sound bioethical judgments. Particular consideration is given to distinguishing the point at which it is time to transition the focus from fighting a patient’s illness to providing the patient with as much comfort as possible as they move towards death, making sure to lend support while exemplifying the foundational moral principles involved.B.A

Postpartum Safety and Satisfaction Following Early Discharge

Two Ontario sites were involved in the evaluation of an obstetrical discharge program. Before program implementation a group of eligible women were enrolled as the preprogram control group (n = 542). During the program, eligible women who agreed to early discharge (ED) became the ED group (n = 319), and those opting not to go home early but consenting to participate in the evaluation became the concurrent group (n = 456). All groups were mailed a self-administered postpartum questionnaire. On demographic characteristics, safety and satisfaction, the ED group was comparable to the concurrent group. Hospital readmission rates did not differ across groups after stratification by site or hospital. Multiple classification analyses revealed a similar pattern for overall satisfaction levels. This unique ED program, which allowed pre- or postnatal enrollment and did not require an initial home assessment, appears to be a safe, effective and flexible approach to obstetrical care

A Comparison of Sexual-Minority Stress in Lesbian and Gay Police Officers

The original purpose of this quantitative study was to compare 5 self-reported sexual minority stress (SMS) factors experienced by lesbian and gay police officers to discover if lesbian or gay police officers experience more SMS, and which factor, if any, is the biggest stressor for either group as measured using subscales of the Daily Heterosexist Experiences Questionnaire (DHEQ). This study partially incorporated minority-stress theory as applied to sexual minorities. This study used subscales from the DHEQ in anonymous, online surveys. Because of the low response rate, the study changed to compare the group of lesbian and gay police officers\u27 self-reports on levels of feelings of vigilance, harassment/discrimination, isolation, vicarious trauma, and victimization as compared to the established population values. The central research question asked if there was a significant difference between lesbian and gay police officers and the established population on self-reported factors of SMS, as measured by the DHEQ. Two-tailed t tests were used to analyze the data. The results showed that lesbian and gay officers reported significantly less SMS as determined by the 5 factors on the DHEQ. The results of this study could provide an impact on how administrators treat lesbian and gay officers and how LGBT policies are created and implemented for internal and external (e.g. LGBT communities) interactions. The results of this study could also provide insight for police psychologists and other mental health practitioners about SMS

Associations of Behavioral Profiles with Social and Vocal Behavior in the Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis)

The research described here tested for relationships among behavioral consistency, personality traits, and communicative behavior in a socially and vocally complex avian species, the Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis). First, I tested for the existence of behavioral profiles, also known as non-human animal personality, across varying contexts (presence of predator, foraging within a novel object, and novel conspecific) in the laboratory. I found evidence for behavioral profiles encompassing behavioral patterns such as activity, affiliation, aggression, and boldness. Second, I incorporated a larger social component to these studies by testing birds housed in social groups in semi-naturalistic aviary settings. In the aviaries, I tested for behavioral profiles in more complex social environments, and also tested for relationships between personality-like influences and the chick-a-dee call, the key vocalization of this species used in social organization. There has been very little work devoted to testing relationships between personality-like traits and communicative behavior. As in the laboratory study, I found evidence for behavioral profiles in the more complex social setting of the aviaries. I found aggression and boldness to be strongly, positively correlated with chick-a-dee call rate. Additionally, I found particular note types within the chick-a-dee call to be indicative of both aggressive behavior and avian predator presence. Taken together, findings from these studies indicate that personality-like influences in chickadees may play an important role in constraining variation in individual, social, and communicative behavior

Aboriginal labour market integration and the 2009 Saskatchewan Labour Market Strategy : An application of John Kingdon's policy stream theory

Within Saskatchewan, Aboriginal labour market integration has been consistently low, especially in comparison to non-Aboriginal peoples. In 2007, the Government of Saskatchewan created a Labour Market Commission to view labour market trends and challenges, with a focus on improving Aboriginal labour market integration. In 2009, the Commission developed an aggressive policy initiative called the 2009 Saskatchewan Labour Market Strategy. One of the main objectives of the policy was increasing Aboriginal labour market integration in Saskatchewan. The Commission spanned across two different governments, beginning under the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party government and ending under the Saskatchewan Party government. Despite being well received by a majority of invested stakeholders, the Saskatchewan Party government did not implement the 2009 Saskatchewan Labour Market Strategy, and the Commission was subsequently disbanded. It is the objective of the thesis to explore the evolution of the 2009 Saskatchewan Labour Market Strategy to examine why the issue of Aboriginal labour market integration gained traction, how policy makers intended to address it and why this Strategy was ultimately not implemented. John Kingdon’s policy stream theory will provide the theoretical framework for the analysis. Kingdon’s policy stream theory suggests policy development flows through three distinct streams: the problem stream, the policy proposal stream and the political stream. The thesis will use these streams to examine the development of the Strategy and conclude that Aboriginal integration was focused on for economic reasons, rather than solely improving overall quality of life, and that the Strategy was rejected by the Saskatchewan Party government on partisan grounds

Pilot-testing a Cancer 101 Education Curriculum with the Fairbanks Native Association’s Women & Children’s Center for Inner Healing

Cancer is the leading cause of death among Alaska Native people Nevertheless, due to improved detection awareness about cancer prevention, early screening and advances in treatment survival rates are rising