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The purpose of this auto-ethnographic and art-based study is to examine how the experiences throughout my life have influenced my practice as an artist. It is within the context of a socially constructed past and present place that I will explore my own process in terms of collaboration and the implications for an artist-teacher, or teaching artist. I reflect upon how my values and philosophy as an art educator have been formed from the synthesis of my experiences. My relationships with a gallery, its clients, and a fellow artist provide the context for reflecting about my process and gaining insights into my potential role as a model and influence on my future students.

This research investigates the work involved for social science graduate students (SSGS) in their development of an application for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Central to CIHR’s mandate is the desire to “excel according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence” (CIHR, 2010, p. 3) which frames its epistemological stance around a traditional conception of science. Social scientists utilize a wide range of methodologies and work from a variety of epistemological positions. Some use very traditional "scientifically accepted" methodologies, which are most often quantitative. However, many social scientists use a wide range of qualitative methods to produce knowledge. This project describes how SSGS learn to make a CIHR application, navigate the application process, and negotiate its content, as well as other activities involved. It discusses the double subordination they face from both their supervisors and CIHR as well as the difficulties and challenges they encountered when making the application. By interviewing graduate social scientists, and through a textual analysis of their CIHR applications, I examine how social science graduate students know and describe their experience of developing their social science research project into a CIHR grant application. / Graduate

Several years ago a ten year child with a disability died from "severe malnutrition" according to a Coroners Service inquest jury. The inquest evidence shows that approximately one week prior to this child's death three health care providers conducted individual assessments of the child. Using institutional ethnography as a theoretical and methodological framework, the author conducts a textual analysis of the health care providers' documents generated during their provision of service to this child. Obtained as public documents from the Coroners Service, this data includes: the hospital form, the hospice society records and home care nursing records. / Graduate / 0566

This thesis is an exploration of the social construction and organization of community palliative care. The author's personal experience as the wife of a dying person is used to explicate the social relations of palliative care, through the feminist and constructivist methodology of institutional ethnography. The data analyzed includes a personal journal, working texts of the palliative care team (e.g. recording and reporting forms) obtained through Freedom of Information, and the Palliative Care at Home manual. / Graduate / 0452

The objective of this study is to describe and understand the organizational culture and context in Home Health Nursing (HHNsg) practice. Participants consisted of a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), three Registered Nurses (RNs) and three Registered Nurse leaders. Using the methodology of ethnography, data collection methods included participant-observation, documenting fieldnotes, writing reflective memos, conducting individual interviews and examining organizational priorities. Home Health Nurses (HHNs) were observed and subsequently interviewed to illustrate routine practices and discourses that influence everyday HHNsg practice. Nurse leaders shared their perspectives of everyday contexts underpinning HHNsg practice, particularly professional claims of culturally-competent care. Geertz’s theoretical concepts of “thick descriptions and “texts” were applied to the analysis. My concluding discussion demonstrates how participants enacted cost-effective and efficient philosophies of organizing care despite claiming the importance of culturally-competent care with South Asian clients (India, Punjab). / Graduate

Progressive efforts within the healthcare design community have led to a call for architects to use relevant scientific research in design decision making in order to provide facilities that are safe, efficient, and flexible enough to accommodate evolving care processes. Interdisciplinary design project teams comprising architects, interior designers, engineers, and a variety of consultants struggle to find ways to deal with the challenge of incorporating the evidence base into the projects at hand. To date there has been little research into how these interdisciplinary teams operate in the real world and especially how they communicate and attempt to integrate evidence coming from different sources into the architectural design that is delivered. This study presents an investigation of a healthcare design project in situ by using methods of ethnographic inquiry, with the aim of developing an enhanced understanding of actual collaborative healthcare design practices. A major finding is that ‘evidence’, as used in practice is a richly textured notion extending beyond just the scientific research base. The description and analysis of the observed practices is presented around two core chapters involving the design process of 1) the emergency department and 2) the inpatient unit. Each design episode, which depicts the complex socio-cognitive landscape of architectural practice, introduces how evidence, with its various types and representational forms, was generated, represented, evaluated, and translated within the interdisciplinary design team. Strategically utilizing various design media, including layout drawings and mock-ups, the architects represented and negotiated a set of physical design attributes which were supported by differing levels of scientific research findings, anecdotes, successful precedents, in-house experimental findings, and intuition, each having different affordances and constraints in solving design problems over time. Individually, or combined into larger “stories” which were collectively generated, the set of relevant evidence provided a basis for decision making at various scales, ranging from minor details within rooms to broader principles to guide design work over the course of the project. Emphasizing the role of the architects in translation of evidence, the design episodes provide vivid examples of how various forms of evidence shape the design of healthcare environments. The case observed in this research demonstrated that the participants formulated and explained their design ideas in terms of mechanistic arguments where scientific research, best practices, and anecdotal evidence were integrated into segments that formed causal links. These mechanistic models, as repositories of trans-disciplinary knowledge involving design, medicine, epidemiology, nursing, and engineering, expand the scope of traditional understanding of evidence in healthcare design. In facilitating design processes architects are required not only to become knowledgeable about the available evidence on healthcare, but also to use their meta-expertise to interpret, translate (re-present), and produce evidence in order to meaningfully engage in interdisciplinary exchanges. In re-presenting causal models through layouts or mock-ups, architects play a critical role in evidence-based design processes through creating a platform that displays shortcomings of available evidence and shows where evidence needs to be created in situ.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.