Canadian Tourism SMEs: Understanding the Motivations, Valuations of Success and Experiences of Business Owners in Southern Ontario

This research explores aspects of small tourism businesses in a Canadian context. A number of authors (e.g., Getz and Nilsson, 2004; Hall and Rusher, 2004; Lynch and Tucker, 2004; Morrison and Teixeira, 2004a/b) have noted that while small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are acknowledged as an important parts of the tourism industry, they are underrepresented in the academic literature. Of the small business research that has been conducted, a sizeable portion has focused on industries other than tourism; the tourism-specific research on SMEs has predominately been conducted in Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand and has frequently focused on a single segment of the industry, often the small accommodation sector. Little research of this nature has been done in a Canadian context. The study was set in Stratford and Goderich, Ontario, and compares and contrasts two parts of the tourism industry: the accommodation and food and beverage sectors. The study focused on small business owners and examined three main aspects: their motivations for starting/purchasing the business, how they evaluated the success of the business and the experiences they had while running the business. The research also set out to examine the demography of Canadian tourism SME owners and how they defined small business. A mixed methods approach was adopted. Data were collected through mailed questionnaires which were followed up with semi-structured interviews. Findings showed that despite motivations being similar between study sites and industries, the paths that lead owners to their business varied greatly. Though ‘lifestyle’ motivations were predominately cited, financial considerations were also noted. Owners frequently used financial calculations to measure the achievement of their lifestyle motivations. The experiences owners had with their business were overwhelmingly positive and were grouped into six themes: changes in the industry, relationship building, staffing, the importance of customer service, financial costs of running a small business and time management. The results of this study confirmed that Canadian tourism SME owners in Stratford and Goderich, Ontario, possess similar motivations, measurements of success and experiences as their national and international counterparts

Mise en place d’une formation sur la sécurité des patients dirigée par des résidents

Implication Statement The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has made Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) a priority in residency education, however, implementation is limited by the heterogeneity of previously published curricula. We created a longitudinal resident-led patient safety (PS) curriculum using relatable, real-life PS incidents (PSIs) and an analysis framework. Implementation was feasible, well received by residents and demonstrated significant improvement in residents’ PS knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Our curriculum built a culture of PS within a pediatric residency program, promoted engagement in QIPS practices early in training, and filled a gap in the current curriculum teaching.Énoncé des implications de la recherche Le Collège royal des médecins et chirurgiens du Canada a fait de la sécurité des patients et de l’amélioration de la qualité (SPAQ) une priorité dans la formation des résidents, mais la mise en pratique de ces objectifs est limitée par l’hétérogénéité des programmes d’études existants. Nous avons créé un programme d’études longitudinal sur la sécurité des patients (SP), dirigé par des résidents, à partir d’incidents réels et pertinents liés à la SP et d’un cadre d’analyse. Facile à réaliser et bien accueillie par les résidents, la formation a été suivie d’une amélioration marquée des connaissances, des compétences et des attitudes des résidents en matière de sécurité des patients. Notre cours a permis de créer une culture de la SP au sein d’un programme de résidence en pédiatrie, de promouvoir l’application des pratiques liées à la SPAQ dès le début de la formation et de combler ainsi une lacune du programme

Optimizing the use of continuous glucose monitoring in young children with type 1 diabetes with an adaptive study design and multiple randomizations

Parents of young children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience unique, developmental challenges in managing their child's T1D, resulting in psychosocial distress. Only a small portion of young children reach glucose goals and adherence to diabetes devices that help improve T1D management have historically been low in this population. The purpose of this study is to test four interventions that couple developmentally tailored behavioral supports with education to optimize use of diabetes devices, improve glucose control, and reduce psychosocial distress for parents of young children with T1D. The study team designed four behavioral interventions, two aimed at improving glucose control and two aimed at optimizing use of diabetes devices. The goal of this paper is to describe the behavioral interventions developed for this study, including the results of a pilot test, and describe the methods and analysis plan to test this intervention strategy with ninety participants in a large-scale, randomized trial using a sequential multiple assignment randomization trial (SMART) design. A SMART design will permit a clinically relevant evaluation of the intervention strategy, as it allows multiple randomizations based on individualized assessments throughout the study instead of a fixed intervention dose seen in most traditional randomized controlled trials

Self-Reported Disability Competency in Naturopathic Medical Students

Healthcare providers often feel unprepared to work with patients with disabilities. There have been no assessments or tools developed to evaluate whether naturopathic medical (ND) students also feel adequately prepared to work with patients with disabilities. We created a survey to assess student comfort levels, competency, and training needs. Surveys were completed by 218 ND students. Cronbach’s alpha for all composite scores were \u3e0.90, suggesting that the surveys have internal consistency. Student comfort working with patients with disabilities significantly increased by program year (p=0.02). Competency scores increased by program year, but this increase was not significant (p=0.17). Over 70% of students indicated that they would like more training on this topic. We were able to assess ND student self-reported comfort, competency, and desire for training with regard to treatment of patients with disabilities. Additional work should be performed to improve disability education for ND students

Implementation of a resident-led patient safety curriculum

Implication StatementThe Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has made Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) a priority in residency education, however, implementation is limited by the heterogeneity of previously published curricula. We created a longitudinal resident-led patient safety (PS) curriculum using relatable, real-life PS incidents (PSIs) and an analysis framework. Implementation was feasible, well received by residents and demonstrated significant improvement in residents’ PS knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Our curriculum built a culture of PS within a pediatric residency program, promoted engagement in QIPS practices early in training, and filled a gap in the current curriculum teaching.Énoncé des implications de la rechercheLe Collège royal des médecins et chirurgiens du Canada a fait de la sécurité des patients et de l’amélioration de la qualité (SPAQ) une priorité dans la formation des résidents, mais l’atteinte de ces objectifs est limitée par l’hétérogénéité des programmes de formation existants. Nous avons co-construit avec des residents un programmede formation longitudinal sur la sécurité des patients (SP), à partir d’incidents réels et pertinents liés à la SP et d’un cadre d’analyse. Facile à réaliser et bien accueillie par les résidents, la formation a été suivie d’une amélioration marquée des connaissances, des compétences et des attitudes des résidents en matière de SP. Notre formation a permis de créer une culture de la SP au sein d’un programme de résidence en pédiatrie, de promouvoir l’adoption de pratiques qui favorisent la SPAQ dès le début de la residence et de combler ainsi une lacune des programmes actuels

Data from: Deep phylogeographic structure and environmental differentiation in the carnivorous plant Sarracenia alata

We collected ~29kb of sequence data using Roche 454 pyrosequencing in order to estimate the timing and pattern of diversification in the carnivorous pitcher plant Sarracenia alata. Utilizing modified protocols for reduced representation library construction, we generated sequence data from 86 individuals across 10 populations from throughout the range of the species. We identified 76 high quality and high coverage loci (containing over 500 SNPs) using the bioinformatics pipeline PRGmatic. Results from a Bayesian clustering analysis indicate that populations are highly structured, and are similar in pattern to the topology of a population tree estimated using *BEAST. The pattern of diversification within S. alata implies that riverine barriers are the primary factor promoting population diversification, with divergence across the Mississippi River occurring more than 60,000 generations before present. Further, significant patterns of niche divergence and the identification of several outlier loci suggest that selection may contribute to population divergence. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using next-generation sequencing to investigate intraspecific genetic variation in non-model species

SupplementaryFigure_1_R1

Coverage per locus. Black bars correspond to number individuals used for analysis per locus and the black numbers on the x-axis. Gray bars represent the cumulative number of sequencing reads used to call a given locus and correspond to the gray values on the x-axis

SupplementaryTables_R1

Excel file that contains five supplemental tables

SupplementaryFigure_2_R1

Shown are results from STRUCTURE runs across 10 partitioning levels (k =2 to k = 11)