THE VAXED PROJECT: An Assessment of Immunization Education in Canadian Health Professional Programs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Knowledge & attitudes of healthcare providers (HCP) have significant impact on frequency with which vaccines are offered & accepted but many HCP are ill equipped to make informed recommendations about vaccine merits & risks. We performed an assessment of the educational needs of trainees regarding immunization and used the information thus ascertained to develop multi-faceted, evaluable, educational tools which can be integrated into formal education curricula.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>(i) A questionnaire was sent to all Canadian nursing, medical & pharmacy schools to assess immunization-related curriculum content (ii) A 77-item web-based, validated questionnaire was emailed to final-year students in medicine, nursing, & pharmacy at two universities in Nova Scotia, Canada to assess knowledge, attitudes, & behaviors reflecting current immunization curriculum.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The curriculum review yielded responses from 18%, 48%, & 56% of medical, nursing, & pharmacy schools, respectively. Time spent on immunization content varied substantially between & within disciplines from <1 to >50 hrs. Most schools reported some content regarding vaccine preventable diseases, immunization practice & clinical skills but there was considerable variability and fewer schools had learning objectives or formal evaluation in these areas. 74% of respondents didn't feel comfortable discussing vaccine side effects with parents/patients & only 21% felt they received adequate teaching regarding immunization during training.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Important gaps were identified in the knowledge of graduating nursing, medical, & pharmacy trainees regarding vaccine indications/contraindications, adverse events & safety. The national curriculum review revealed wide variability in immunization curriculum content & evaluation. There is clearly a need for educators to assess current curricula and adapt existing educational resources such as the Immunization Competencies for Health Professionals in Canada.</p

PCR/DNA analysis of archaeological faunal remains from Rocky Mountain House and Morleyville (1834-1861, 1875-1896), Alberta, Canada

Bibliography: p. 105-114Some pages are in colour.Two settlements in south central Alberta, Rocky Mountain House, a fur trade post, and Morleyville, a Methodist mission, were occupied contemporaneously and situated in close proximity in the same geographic region. Both settlements contained substantial quantities of fragmentary bone making it difficult to specifically identify the species of origin. Ancient DNA analysis was employed to determine the species of origin of a significant number of bones from both sites. It was believed that ancient DNA analysis would help clarify faunal utilization patterns at Rocky Mountain House and Morleyville. Primers were designed to amplify a 124 base pair fragment of the cytochrome b gene in ruminants. Elk, moose, bison, cow and caribou sequences were recovered from Rocky Mountain House, a fur trade post. Elk was most highly represented at approximately 65% of the sequences recovered. This contradicts the conventional wisdom that bison were the most common food source here. Cow, elk, bison, pig and mule deer sequences were recovered from Morleyville. Ancient DNA analysis allowed the separation of cow and bison remains at Morleyville, which previously had not been possible. Since unidentified bones at Rocky Mountain House were reasonably abundant, this presented an opportunity to examine predictors of DNA survival. It was expected that an association would exist between the ability to amplify DNA and the state of preservation of the bone. It was not possible to confirm this expectation