Simulation-based learning (SBL) has been a core course component in nursing curricula for decades. The growing use of SBL has led to increasingly lifelike simulations and continued development to maximize learning opportunities. Reflection and debriefing are key components of SBL to improve learning outcomes and clinical skills. Reflection is often described as a process; however, nursing students rarely have the opportunity to participate in the same simulation or clinical experience twice to completely engage in the reflective process. Reflection from the patient’s perspective is a new concept to simulation, first done by Taplay (2020) using the Reflective Practice from the Patient’s Perspective (RPPP) tool. In this study, we applied the RPPP 3.0 tool to a pediatric nursing simulation, where the simulated child wore spyglasses to record visual and audio data of the simulation (Taplay, 2020). Participants watched their simulations from the patient’s perspective and partook in an interview guided by the RPPP 3.0 tool (Taplay, 2020). Then, participants returned within 2-9 days to repeat the same simulation and reflection. Participants found value and meaning in the repeated reflection. Themes of reactions, communication, appraisal of performance, and the difference were found. Reflecting from the pediatric patient’s perspective allowed participants to gain insight into how their actions and communication were perceived. Repeating reflection encouraged participants to partake in self-directed preparation and allowed them to gain confidence, implement change, and improve their practice.

Research regarding women’s body image during menopause is limited; few studies reflect the experiences of ethnic women, especially South Asian women living in Canada. Cultural differences play an important role in both body image and menopause experiences and may be particularly important to South Asian women, who often fear stigmatization and struggle with openly discussing health concerns. This study used interpretive phenomenological analysis, which focuses on understanding and interpreting the experiences of the participants, to explore the relationship between body image and the transition of menopause in South Asian Canadian women. Nine first generation South Asian immigrant Canadian women (aged 49-59 years), in perimenopause or postmenopause were recruited for semi-structured individual interviews. Overall, three themes were constructed: 1) Complexity and intertwining of body image and menopause experiences, which showed that although women understood body image as a multidimensional construct, their own body image focused on weight and appearance that was impacted by menopause and aging; 2) “It's just something we go through silently”: The challenges of body image and menopause experiences, which highlighted the lack personal support from family and South Asian community and the disconnected feeling from their bodies through the menopause transition; and 3) The push and pull of South Asian and Western cultures, which focused on conflicts between the two cultures and influence of the South Asian culture on beauty, body image, and aging. Results showed that participants often upheld Western body image ideals by equating positive body image practices and attitudes with these ideals, and this was often worsened by South Asian cultural norms. Additionally, women’s understanding of body image and menopause showed a gap between their personal understanding and research. Participants emphasized a lack of ethnically appropriate education for body image and menopause, suggesting there is a need for the implementation of culturally-appropriate and community-based interventions, and resources (e.g., workshops, seminars, support groups). Moreover, an underlying narrative of cultural conflict (Western vs South Asian cultures) and impact of the South Asian culture was evident. Therefore, further examination of the complexity and influence of the South Asian culture on body image and menopause experiences is required.

Within the Canadian sport system there has been a noted decline in team sport participation among youth athletes. Factors that have contributed to this decline include increased competition amongst organizations, a larger number of sport options and sport specialization. Baseball in particular is a sport that has seen declining participation rates in recent years. Within the sport management literature two key concepts have emerged as key areas of interest for youth sport organizations in their operations; interorganizational relationships and organizational capacity. Interorganizational relationship (IOR) development has been identified as an effective strategy for strengthening the capacity of youth sport organizations (Misener & Doherty, 2013). Organizational capacity has been related to the ability of organizations to draw on a variety of resources to help achieve desired outcomes (Hall et al., 2003), while there is also evidence to support the connection between greater organizational capacity and increased success in achieving these outcomes (Jones et al., 2017). Thus, the purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship between interorganizational relationships and organizational capacity within a youth baseball network in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. Data were collected from representatives of ten youth baseball organizations through a survey instrument via telephone interview format. Data were analyzed using a social network analysis methodology including the use of the UCINET 6.0 software program and NetDraw function that allowed for the calculation of density and centrality measures along with visual representations of the network. QAP Multiple Regression analysis was also conducted and showed that IORs and sector were both found to be statistically significant in their ability to predict organizational capacity ties within this network. Overall, the results of this study allowed for conclusions to be drawn related to network structure, state of organizational capacity, and the relationship between IORs and organizational capacity in this youth baseball network.

This research examined perceptions surrounding dance as a sport, art, or combination of both in Ontario universities. Competitive dancers, dance coaches, and athletic department staff in postsecondary participated in online surveys and interviews to share their individual beliefs, knowledge, and understandings about competitive dance and the ways dancers can occupy spaces as artists and athletes. Perceptions of dance from each group of key informants proved to be dependent on a range of factors within universities and across individual participants. Most participants stated they viewed dance as both an art and a sport but demonstrated tension in how dancers occupied spaces as legitimate athletes within various institutions. While participants indicated openness to the idea of dance as a sport and dancers as athletes, the ways in which this was actually attainable at the university-level was hindered by various institutional and systemic barriers.

Purpose: There is a need for research that investigates confidence, performance, and previous sports involvement among particular sports such as in track and field sprinters. The objective of this study was to investigate relations between previous sport participation, perceived athletic competence, and performance results in university track and field sprinters. Methods: The perceived athletic competence scale and previous sport participation questionnaire were implemented in the form of an online survey. The best performance times were collected from an online results database. All of the participants were enrolled in university and were members of their respective school’s track and field team. Measures of variability and descriptive statistics were calculated, and Analysis of Variance and t-tests were implemented to analyze potential differences amongst the variables of this study. Results: There were a total of 42 university track and field sprinters between the age of 18 and 23. The highest participated sports (sum) were track and field sprints (624), soccer (234), hockey (189), and basketball (164). A repeated measure ANOVA revealed a significant decrease in sports participation across all and between each of the three age groups (ages 8 to 13, 14 to 17, and 18+). Sports participation was the highest in the 8 to 13 age group. A bivariate correlation and linear regression analyses showed statistical insignificance between sport participation and perceived athletic competence. There was a low positive, but not statistically significant relationship from the 8 to 13 age group. Lastly, there was a statistically non-significant positive correlation for the first age (8 to 13) group and sprint performance times. Conclusion: The findings of the study contribute to the areas of sport participation, sport specialization, and athlete development by confirming what is already presently known while adding new support for track and field sprinting as a late specialization sport and the need for further analysis and investigation in the future with a more diverse sample and a larger sample size.

Student-athletes are at high risk for poor mental health. Leaders within the varsity sport environment influence athlete mental health and help-seeking. This dissertation explored the behaviors, perspectives and needs of athletes, coaches, and athletic trainers as it pertains to mental health in sport. Three studies were conducted, the first utilized the Theory of Planned Behavior to explore factors associated with coach-athlete conversations about mental health. A coach’s Attitude towards having a conversation with an athlete significantly influenced their Intention to do so. Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) significantly influenced the relationship between Social Norms and Intention. Both PBC and Social Norms had a significant relationship with the Behavior (having a conversation about mental health with an athlete). The second study applied a conceptual model from Horn’s Working Model of Coach Effectiveness to explore how an athlete’s perception of coach behavior impacts attitudes and help-seeking behaviors. Psychological distress levels influenced an athlete’s Perception of their coach’s behavior. Openness to help-seeking was significantly related to help-seeking Behaviors and influenced the relationship between personal characteristics and help-seeking. Perception of coach behaviors influenced the relationship between psychological distress and help-seeking from a coach. The last study sought to determine the acceptance of an online varsity sport-specific mental health resource. Preliminary results were promising; The PEER Network was frequently used over the study period and participants had positive and supportive feedback. Overall, results from the three studies suggest that perceived ability and social support may influence whether coach-athlete conversations about mental health occur. Due to the effects of these variables, coach mental health training should focus on improving the skills required for these conversations and normalizing mental health in sport. As an athlete’s perception of coach behavior mediated the relationship between psychological distress and help-seeking, training should also focus on clear ways to show athletes that coaches are supportive of mental health. Athlete-specific training should try and improve attitudes towards help-seeking and highlight the value from seeking help. The PEER Network may be an easily accessible and context-specific way of achieving these educational goals for members of the varsity athletic community.

Unintentional injuries are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). First aid training involves teaching critical first aid skills, some of which are designed to treat unintentional injuries. To date, no study has (a) evaluated the effects of video prompting procedures to teach first aid skills to children with IDD or (b) attempted to teach these skills to children using a telehealth delivery format. We used a concurrent multiple baseline across skills design to evaluate the effectiveness of video prompting procedures via telehealth to teach five children with IDD to perform first aid on themselves for insect stings, minor cuts, and minor burns under simulated conditions. For all participants, training resulted in large improvements, which maintained for a minimum of 4 weeks. Further, effects of the training generalized to novel confederates for all participants, and these effects maintained for a minimum of 4 weeks. In addition, participants and their caregivers expressed high satisfaction with the video prompting procedures and telehealth experience.

Despite their important role in lake ecosystems, the fossil record of consumers has been underutilized compared to the remains of algae and plants in paleoenvironmental studies. Cladocerans, chironomids, and testate amoebae were found in palynological preparations of sediments throughout Crawford Lake (a unique meromictic lake in Ontario, Canada), but rotifer lorica and cysts of aloricate ciliates were only preserved in seasonally laminated sediments in the monimolimnion of this lake, demonstrating the exceptional preservation potential in this portion of the lake water column. Relatively diverse assemblages of consumer palynomorphs were associated with anthropogenic impact on this lake, and the annual chronological resolution afforded by varves allowed these to be related to historic events in the small watershed, the most notable being the operation of a lumber mill on the south shore of the lake, and to archeological and pollen evidence of several phases of agricultural settlement between the 13th and 15th centuries. Lower diversity of consumer palynomorphs between the Iroquoian and Euro-Canadian settlement phases (i.e., late 15th through early 19th centuries) mainly reflects the sharp decline in most rotifer taxa and the cladoceran Bosmina longirostris, but the persistence of the rotifers Keratella hiemalis and Kellicottia longispina is evidence that the lake ecosystem did not return to pre-human impact conditions after abandonment of the Iroquoian settlement. Understanding how the trophic level of consumers responded to natural and anthropogenic stressors relied heavily on rarely preserved rotifer lorica, but the observation that the cladoceran B. longirostris tended to thrive relative to the typically more common Daphnia at times of cultural eutrophication may have broader application in palynological studies of lakes. Contrary to long-standing assumption, the exceptional preservation of organic-walled microfossils in undisturbed seasonal laminae in the deep basin of Crawford Lake cannot be explained by anoxia. Observations of seasonal migration of zooplankton to and from the mixolimnion in conjunction with instrumental measurements of dissolved oxygen, temperature, and conductivity in the water column almost monthly from October 2019 through September 2020 demonstrated that this meromictic lake is uncharacteristically well-oxygenated below the chemocline. Instead, exceptional preservation is attributed to the lack of bioturbation and the suppression of bacterial decomposition in the cold, nearly brackish, highly alkaline bottom waters devoid of benthos larger than ostracods able to migrate into the deep basin via interstitial waters. The annual resolution possible in sediments deposited in a typically well-oxygenated setting is an attractive feature in the search for a potential GSSP to define the Anthropocene Epoch using plutonium from fallout of thermonuclear testing as a primary marker.

The present study provides insight into how the Rehtaeh Parsons case was conceptualized by Canadian news sources. Through the use of qualitative content analysis of Canadian newspapers, the present research involved an examination of how the media socially constructed the case with specific focus on how the issues of bullying and harassment were depicted in comparison to broader social inequalities within our society. This research is methodologically qualitative, informed by an intersectional conceptual framework and engages content analysis of media sources as key method. The purpose of this study was to examine how the Rehtaeh Parsons case was constructed by Canadian news sources, with specific focus on aspects of bullying and social inequalities that were discussed by the media in relation to the case, and subsequent reaction and response after the suicide of Rehtaeh Parsons. This analysis provided an in-depth understanding of how the case was conceptualized and the core components of the case that were discussed by news sources across Canada. Through the use of an intersectional framework and content analysis this study examined twenty-three selected Canadian newspapers articles that discussed the core components and issues surrounding the Rehtaeh Parsons case. More specifically, this study sought to address two major research questions: 1. How was the Rehtaeh Parsons case conceptualized by Canadian news outlets? 2. To what extent was the Rehtaeh Parsons case constructed as a case of bullying, harassment and sexual assault in comparison to broader social inequalities within society?

The objectives of this thesis were to 1) explore the effects of postural threat on sample entropy, a measure interpreted to reflect the attentional investment in postural control, and to 2) examine the relationships between threat-related changes in physiological arousal, perceived anxiety, attention focus, conventional postural control measures, and sample entropy. A secondary data analysis was conducted on a combined data set derived from two published studies; each study used the postural perturbation threat model which allowed for a comparison between No Threat and Threat conditions. Young adults (N = 105) stood without (No Threat) and with (Threat) the expectation of receiving a temporally and directionally unpredictable support surface translation in the forward or backward direction. Mean electrodermal activity and anterior-posterior centre of pressure mean position, root mean square, mean power frequency, power within low (0–0.05 Hz), medium (0.5–1.8 Hz), and high frequency (1.8–5 Hz) components, and sample entropy were calculated for each trial. Anxiety and attention focus to movement processes, task objectives, threat-related stimuli, self-regulatory strategies, and task-irrelevant information were rated after each trial. The results of the thesis showed that postural threat had a significant effect on sample entropy; higher values were reported in the Threat compared to No Threat condition. However, threat-related changes in physiological arousal, perceived anxiety, and attention focus were not significantly related to changes in sample entropy. Threat-related changes in sample entropy were related to changes in sway amplitude and frequency. The results of this thesis suggest a shift to a more automatic control of posture when threatened despite evidence of increased attention to postural control.