Resident advocacy projects

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Your Residents Section wants to promote trainee-led advocacy projects happening across Canada, allowing for easier access and sharing of information and resources amongst residents and medical students. 

McMaster University

“Addressing Knowledge Gaps in Adolescent Mental Health Supports”

COVID-19 has caused an exponential increase in mental health related presentations to ERs and admissions to hospital for young people in Canada. At our regional center, presentations for eating disorders alone have increased 5-fold, and we have seen unparalleled presenting complaints related to self-harm and mood disorders.

Our project intends to increase resident awareness about the existing mental health supports in the Hamilton and surrounding areas, so they can provide better patient care. Afterwards, we hope to then collate the existing resources and provide them to adolescents (either in printout or QR code form) in a resident clinic or ward setting who screen positive on an already validated mood tool and assess the uptake of these resources by youth.

Dalhousie University

“Enhanced 18-month visit in Nova Scotia”

The CPS created national guidelines in 2011 (https://cps.ca/documents/position/enhanced-well-baby-visit) recommending an “enhanced” well-child visit at 18-months. The goal of an enhanced 18-month visit is to universally assess developmental health using standardized tools, and to provide parental guidance, connect with local resources, or intervene as appropriate. Despite this national guidance from ten years ago, Nova Scotia does not yet have a formal program for the enhanced 18-month visit (https://cps.ca/uploads/advocacy/SR16_ENG.pdf).

Our plan is to support family physicians in Nova Scotia to promote the implementation of an enhanced 18-month visit. To achieve this, we plan to better understand the various programs for an enhanced 18-month well-child assessment across Atlantic Canada and how they are billed. We want to identify the barriers to implementing these visits, and understand current developmental surveillance in Nova Scotia. Finally we hope to discover low/no-cost provincial resources that support healthy children and families.

Memorial University

“Improving nutritional education for the children of Newfoundland and Labrador”

The province of Newfoundland and Labrador has one of the highest rates of obesity in the country, with 45% of children being overweight or obese. Obesity increases the risk of numerous long-term health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension and coronary heart disease. As a result, both the prevention and treatment of obesity is essential. One of the major contributing factors to obesity is increased consumption of calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods². 

Our goal is to provide education around healthy eating to help empower families to improve their nutritional choices. We plan to do this through the creation of an easily accessible, child-friendly nutritious cookbook to provide parents with healthy meal ideas.

University of Ottawa

“Sibling Appreciation Day”

The siblings of children with chronic illnesses or special needs face hardships and negative psychosocial consequences that are often left unrecognized. According to the AAP’s Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health (2015), these children may experience a cycle of feelings such as guilt, anxiety, jealousy, anger, and embarrassment. With frequent medical appointments and hospitalizations, caregivers are often forced into increased absenteeism from the home, limiting their time to bond with the other children and family members in the household. 

The goal of this project is to focus some time and energy on celebrating the support, resilience, and sacrifice provided by the siblings of sick children, as these siblings truly are the secret superheroes of their families. 

Northern Ontario School of Medicine

“Eat, Sleep, Console”

Admissions for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome result in an extended length of hospital stay, high rate of medication usage, and significant health care costs. There are increasing rates of infants admitted with NAS in Northern Ontario.

A novel method for NAS assessment, known as “Eat, Sleep, Console” (ESC)  provides a potential alternative to current methods. This model relies on systematic assessment of newborn feeding, sleep duration between feeds, and the newborn’s ability to be consoled to determine the presence of NAS. This method has consistently demonstrated a significant reduction in length of stay, as well as overall medication usage. 

The four NOSM pediatric program sites in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, North Bay and Sault Ste. Marie will be implementing the ESC approach.  This will allow for equivalent care for infants with NAS across the larger northern Ontario centers and ensure consistent education around management for NAS for our residents and medical students. We hope to help reduce dependencies on pharmaceutical models of care in the management of NAS, as well as  for families to also feel more engaged, support parental bonding with their infant’s care and reduce hospital length of stay thus allowing the infant to be cared for in their home environment.

Université de Sherbrooke

“Vaping”

Our project aims to give a safe space for youth to ask their questions about vaping and share quality information with them. We would like to raise awareness about the potential health hazards related to vaping. As well, we hope to involve one high school in our community in vaping prevention and harm reduction by giving them tools and resources to help reduce/stop vaping.

University of Alberta

“Developmental Tool Box for Chronic Hospitalized Pediatric Patients”

Hospitalization can negatively impact early childhood development. Unfortunately, there are many instances where we have patients in hospital for long periods of time with chronic illness. Through child life there are programs in place to help optimize development for hospitalized patients using volunteers and ancillary services (OT, PT), but these programs have slowed down since the start of the pandemic.

Our project aims to organize a medical school program that allows students on CTU to spend time with chronic patients on a weekly or biweekly basis to promote key developmental milestones in our pediatric patients.

University of Calgary

“Prevention of accidental ingestion of cannabis edibles among the pediatric population”

Accidental ingestion of cannabis edibles is a growing area of concern given the worrisome packaging of cannabis edibles that mimics candy packaging and increasing rates of ED visits.

This project aims to initially assess if accidental ingestion of cannabis edibles is a problem among pediatric population. As well, to understand who is responsible for the enforcement of the Cannabis Regulations in Alberta. Finally, we hope to assess what other jurisdictions have done to address packaging of cannabis edibles to prevent accidental ingestion. After this, we hope to create our advocacy project that will be informed by the answers to the above questions.

University of Laval

“Understanding the health risk of vaping for a better-informed decision - Awareness project about the health risks of vaping targeting teenagers and young adults”

In Quebec vaping has been rising in popularity, with up to 15% of grade 10-12 vaping in 2016-2017. No evidence has shown e-cigarettes to be any less harmful than regular smoking in youth with developing brains. Unfortunately, in a recent survey in the Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs survey, it is noted that 29.3% of adolescents still do not perceive any risks associated with vaping while 9% are not aware of the effects. In fact, with normalization of vaping in the media, accessible supply and branding make it easier to reach a younger population. 

We are currently creating a pamphlet to spread awareness about the negative side effects of vaping directed to teenagers who vape and are hospitalized.

University of Manitoba

“Improvement of health and safety of our transgender patients at HSC Children’s Hospital”

Compared to the general population, transgender youth have high rates of mental illness and suicidality. Transgender youth represent a significant proportion of our patient population in Manitoba, however no current practices are in place regarding education of faculty and promotion of safety for transgender youth. Our project aims to enact policy change in our hospital and create educational sessions for physicians and allied health to create a safer environment for transgender youth. Additionally, we aim to we aim to create information pamphlets to connect transgender patients with available community resources.

University of Saskatchewan

“Reducing the risk of ATV-related Harm in Saskatchewan Children”

Based on the 2016 “Are We Doing Enough?” document published by the CPS, Saskatchewan ranks at the level “good” regarding off-road vehicle safety regulation compared to other provinces. Current laws in Saskatchewan, however, do not do enough to protect children from ATV-related harm. In the 2010 “Cost of Injury in Canada” document by Parachute, the number of hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and rate of permanent disability related to ATVs were second to only motor vehicle collisions when looking at transport-related injuries in Saskatchewan.

Our project aims to determine the prevalence and outcomes of ATV accidents in children in Saskatchewan and to provide education to families in Saskatchewan about the risks of ATV use in children and how to mitigate those risks and contribute to a change in Saskatchewan laws that ultimately prohibits the use of ATVs in children under the age of 16.

Western University

“Facilitating Healthcare Follow-up for At-Risk Children and Adolescents”

As paediatric residents, we have encountered children and adolescents with complex health needs who are lost to follow-up after discharge from hospital. This population most often includes children and adolescents of low socioeconomic status, homeless youth, as well as newcomers to Canada. Statistics Canada estimates that the number of children living below the poverty line in London, Ontario is close to 20% (based on 2015 census data). Additionally, while statistics on homeless youth in London are difficult to find, Youth Opportunities Unlimited, a prominent youth homeless shelter in London, estimates that they support approximately 3500 youth each year.

Our goal for our 2021 CPS Advocacy Project is to identify specific barriers to healthcare follow-up that children and adolescents face in the London-Middlesex Community. We will achieve this by performing a needs assessment of providers in the London-Middlesex Community and using this information to develop sustainable interventions to identified barriers.

University of British Columbia

“The use of a continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS) for children with hyperinsulinism” 

At this time, no CGMS is validated for hyperinsulisim and children monitor their blood glucose with finger pokes, from once to multiple time per day. Our hypothesis is that hypoglycemias are missed, especially overnight, leading to brain injury.

Our project aims to compare the use of a CGMS versus finger pokes for patients with hyperinsulinism and describe the blood glucose trends for those patients.

University of Toronto

“Advocating for Early Detection and Intervention and Depression and Anxiety in Pediatric patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)”

Rates of depression and anxiety in patients with a chronic disease such as IBD have been shown to be higher than that of the general population. Current guidelines recommend routine screening, but the extent to which this is formally done in practice is unknown.

Our project aims to identify institutional and community based mental health resources currently available to IBD patients, create a resource pathway infographic, and pilot the implementation of this resource pathway for patients who have been identified as requiring extra supports. We also plan to evaluate the efficacy of the different resources available.