Carrying baggage or a building a toolkit for adventure? Shifting to trauma-informed class spaces and teaching

“The goal of trauma-informed systems is to avoid retraumatizatizing individuals and support safety, choice, and control in order to promote healing” (Poole, 2015). For a range of reasons, students may feel most comfortable, or that it is necessary, for them to disclose experiences of sexualized violence to faculty members. The purpose of this workshop is to equip faculty members with knowledge and skills for building trauma-informed classes and for responding in a positive way, if disclosures happen. Recognizing that the front line relationship building faculty do with students is inevitable and invaluable, this interactive workshop will explore specific ideas about how to create classes that are mindful of the diverse, and sometimes traumatic, experiences students bring with them. It will encourage shifting from seeing this as “baggage” they need to carry to asking what we can do to enhance their toolkits throughout their time at TRU. While the focus will be on a context of sexualized violence, the information will be adaptable to different kinds of experiences. In addition to general tips for trauma-informed classrooms, we will briefly cover what TRU’s Sexual Violence Policy (BRD 25-0) can and cannot do and give an overview of helpful responses as well as resources. We look forward to sharing and discussing practical steps each of us can take to create safer classes for those who have experienced sexualized violence

Exercise interventions for patients with pediatric cancer during inpatient acute care: A systematic review of literature

Physical inactivity has been shown to exacerbate negative side effects experienced by pediatric patients undergoing cancer therapy. Exercise interventions are being created in response. This review summarizes current exercise intervention data in the inpatient pediatric oncology setting. Two independent reviewers collected literature from three databases, and analyzed data following the PRISMA statement for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Ten studies were included, representing 204 patients. Good adherence, positive trends in health status, and no adverse events were noted. Common strategies included individual, supervised, combination training with adaptability to meet fluctuating patient abilities. We recommend that general physical activity programming be offered to pediatric oncology inpatients