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Simple Summary: In this article, we report on action research in the Canadian province of Alberta, based on forging alliances with officers who enforce federal, provincial, and municipal legislation involving animals. Some of these officers worked in rural areas, and others worked in urban areas. Some mainly enforced Alberta's Animal Protection Act, while a few specialized in enforcing Canada's Criminal Code. For the most part, however, participating officers had a mandate to enforce animal-related local bylaws. Such ordinances or rulebooks exist because Alberta's Municipal Government Act allows local councils to enact legislation regarding domestic and wild animals, particularly as regards people's health, property, safety, and welfare. Many professionals refer to policies such as these, which are deeply rooted in the western legal tradition, such as "animal control." Our findings illuminate how animal-control policies and personnel can help to protect domesticated animals, not just people. Even so, our research highlights that animal-control policies as well as animal-protection policies routinely fail to protect officers who enforce legislation involving animals. Furthermore, whenever officers who enforce legislation involving animals work in unsafe conditions, this endangers human as well as non-human lives. Across Canada and internationally, laws exist to protect animals and to stop them from becoming public nuisances and threats. The work of officers who enforce local bylaws protects both domestic animals and humans. Despite the importance of this work, research in this area is emergent, but growing. We conducted research with officers mandated to enforce legislation involving animals, with a focus on local bylaw enforcement in the province of Alberta, Canada, which includes the city of Calgary. Some experts regard Calgary as a "model city" for inter-agency collaboration. Based on partnerships with front-line officers, managers, and professional associations in a qualitative multiple-case study, this action-research project evolved towards advocacy for occupational health and safety. Participating officers spoke about the societal benefits of their work with pride, and they presented multiple examples to illustrate how local bylaw enforcement contributes to public safety and community wellbeing. Alarmingly, however, these officers consistently reported resource inadequacies, communication and information gaps, and a culture of normalized disrespect. These findings connect to the concept of "medico-legal borderlands," which became central to this study. As this project unfolded, we seized upon opportunities to improve the officers' working conditions, including the potential of relational coordination to promote the best practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Enteric outbreaks associated with child care centres (CCC) have been well documented internationally and in Canada. The current literature focuses on identifying potential risk factors for introduction and transmission of enteric disease, but does not examine why these risk factors happen, how the risk is understood and managed by the staff of CCCs, or what challenges they experience responding to enteric illness. The purpose of this study was to explore the understanding, knowledge and actions of CCC staff regarding enteric illness and outbreaks, and to identify challenges that staff encounter while managing them. Methods: Focus groups were conducted with staff of regulated CCCs in Southern Ontario. Five focus groups were held with 40 participants. An open ended style of interviewing was used. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Results: CCC staff play an important role in preventing and managing enteric illness. Staff used in-depth knowledge of the children, the centre and their personal experiences to assist in making decisions related to enteric illness. The decisions and actions may differ from guidance provided by public health officials, particularly when faced with challenges related to time, money, staffing and parents. Conclusion: CCC staff relied on experience and judgment in coordination with public health information to assist decision-making in the management of enteric illness and outbreaks. Advice and guidance from public health officials to CCC staff needs to be consistent yet flexible so that it may be adapted in a variety of situations and meet regulatory and public health requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In food animal production medicine (FAPM), the success of control programs for infectious diseases that have serious animal health and economic consequences frequently rely on the veterinarian's effective communication and producer adherence to veterinary recommendations. However, little research has been conducted on communication skills of practicing FAPM veterinarians. During this study, we developed a communication training workshop intervention to support the Atlantic Johne's Disease Initiative. Seventeen FAPM veterinarians across 10 clinics practicing within Maritime Canada participated in a pre-post intervention study design. Communication skills were evaluated utilizing 3 assessment tools; an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE), standardized client feedback, and an instrument designed for veterinary participants to assess their self-efficacy. Study results showed that before training, communication skills of participating veterinarians had limitations, including skill deficits in communication tasks strongly associated with increased adherence to veterinary recommendations. Based on the 3 assessment tools, communication skills of participating veterinarians improved with the training provided. Significant increases were detected in pre- to postintervention self-efficacy percentage scores, OSCE percentage and global scores from expert raters, and OSCE percentage and global scores from standardized client feedback. These improvements emphasize the importance of communication skills training specific to FAPM., (The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. and Fass Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

ABSTRACTThe objective of this study was to assess whether pet ownership contributes to social participation and life satisfaction for older adults. We used baseline data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) for this purpose, and logistic regression models to estimate associations between social participation and life satisfaction for pet owners and non-owners. One third of all older adults (≥ 65 years, n = 7,474) in our sample reported pet ownership. Pet owners were less likely than non-pet owners to report life satisfaction and to participate frequently in social, recreational, or cultural activities, but pet owners were no less satisfied than were non-owners with their current levels of social participation. For pet owners experiencing barriers to social participation, pets appeared protective of life satisfaction in some circumstances. Both individual characteristics and structural factors linked to the World Health Organization's age-friendly communities framework were relevant to understanding these findings.

Communication is a core clinical skill of veterinary medicine and one that needs to be taught and learned to the same degree as other clinical skills. To provide this education and essential expertise, veterinary schools in many countries, especially including North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia, have begun to develop programs and communication curricula. Human medical education, however, has 30 years' experience in developing communication curricula, and is thus an excellent resource upon which veterinary educators can build and shape their own communication programs. This article describes a skills-based communication course that has been successfully implemented for veterinary medical education at Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) and was based on the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine's well-established program. The Calgary-Cambridge Guides and supporting textbooks provide the scaffolding for teaching, learning, and evaluation in both programs. Resources such as space and materials to support the OVC program were also patterned after Calgary's program. Communication skills, and the methods for teaching and learning them, are equally applicable for the needs of both human medicine and veterinary medicine. The research evidence from human medicine is also very applicable for veterinary medicine and provides it the leverage it needs to move forward. With this extensive base available, veterinary medicine is in a position to move communication skills training forward rapidly.