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The literature on professional socialization focuses on how students adopt and internalize professional identities and values, and assumes that boundary work is essential to learning how best to practice their profession. However, a focus on boundary work in the context of midwifery training - which is embedded in the gendered and hierarchical landscape of maternity care - is lacking. Thus, this article examines how Canadian student-midwives learn to navigate and negotiate interprofessional boundaries. Grounded in a symbolic interactionist approach, it draws on 31 semi-structured qualitative interviews from a mixed-methods national study on midwifery retention, explores how midwifery students make sense of the tensions among midwives, physicians, and nurses, and describes what strategies they utilize when navigating boundaries. Our analysis, based in constructivist grounded theory, revealed that participants learned about interprofessional tensions in clinical placement encounters via direct or indirect interactions with other healthcare professionals, and that strategies to navigate these tensions included educating others about midwifery training and adopting a learner identity. This article proposes that the process of professional socialization enables to reshape professional boundaries and that students are not only learners but also agents of change. These findings may yield practical applications in health education by highlighting opportunities for improving interprofessional collaborations. • Boundary work is part of professional socialization process. • Professional boundaries are ambiguous in midwifery but they are understudied. • This paper examines boundary work among 31 Canadian midwifery students. • The boundaries were clear with physicians but blurred in communication with nurses. • Learning about boundaries, students recreated them but also became agents of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contact!Unload , a research-based theatre production, portrays veterans experiencing mental health challenges and overcoming them through therapeutic enactment. It was performed eight times by veteran performers in 2017 for audiences in two Canadian cities comprised of civilians and military-connected personnel and their families (n = 525). Drawing upon qualitative and quantitative data sources, this paper evaluates the immediate and longer-term impacts of Contact!Unload as a knowledge translation intervention for audience members. Our findings suggest that the performance: 1) improved knowledge of mental health concerns and symptoms that some veterans experience when transitioning to civilian life, 2) increased knowledge of the need for mental health supports and care for veterans, 3) sustained impacts on awareness and knowledge six months after the play and 4) sparked dialogue and actions after the show for some audience members. Moreover, theatre was seen as a powerful medium to engage audience members both cognitively and affectively in the topic. Research-based theatre has significant potential as a knowledge translation intervention for mental health topics. The work also points to the untapped potential of using RbT to engage audience members in a mental health literacy intervention. Future work is needed to study how to effectively combine research-based theatre with intervention design frameworks and other mental health literacy interventions. • Research-based theatre (RbT) is an effective method for knowledge translation. • The embodied experience of theatre bolsters empathy and receptivity to learning. • Short and longer-term cognitive and affective impacts for audiences were achieved. • RbT can also shift social responses to and professional practices in mental health. • RbT holds untapped potential as a mental health literacy intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite decades of campaigns aimed at reducing tobacco/nicotine (T/N) use and the development of many different T/N reduction and cessation strategies, the impacts on international public health remain significant. Some studies have found an association between medical and non-medical cannabis use and T/N use, although the evidence on whether cannabis/cannabinoids increase or decrease the odds of reducing or ceasing T/N use remain contradictory. This paper explores the self-reported use of cannabis and associated changes in T/N use among a Canadian medical cannabis patient population.Methods: This study examines the impact of medical cannabis on T/N use by comparing self-reported patterns of use before and after the initiation of medical cannabis. Participants completed an online cross-sectional survey examining demographics, patterns of medical cannabis use, and the impact of medical cannabis on the use of T/N and other substances. The survey also included novel measures examining whether patients intended to use medical cannabis to reduce T/N use or had experience with other pharmacological or psychobehavioral T/N cessation strategies. We conducted a series of descriptive analyses and univariate and multivariate logistic regressions to explore the potential association between primary variables of interest and T/N reduction and cessation.Results: In total, the study recruited 2102 individuals, of whom 650 were current or former T/N users. Following initiation of medical cannabis use 320 (49%) T/N users self-reported reductions in use, with 160 (24.6%) reporting no T/N use in the 30 days prior to the survey. Odds of T/N cessation were greater among those who were age 55 or older (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 2.56, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.53-4.26), or those who reported >25 T/N uses per day in the pre-period (AOR = 2.11, 95% CI 1.14-3.92). Specific intent to use medical cannabis to quit resulted in significantly greater odds of reducing T/N use (AOR = 2.79, 95% CI 1.49-5.22); however, involvement with traditional T/N cessation treatments (pharmacological or psychobehavioral) was negatively associated with T/N cessation (AOR 0.39, 95% CI 0.18-0.86).Conclusions: Results from this retrospective survey of medical cannabis users suggest that initiation of medical cannabis use was associated with self-reported reductions and/or cessation of T/N use in nearly half of study participants. In light of the significant morbidity, mortality, and health care costs related to T/N dependence, future research should further evaluate the potential of cannabis-based treatments to support efforts to reduce or cease T/N use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]