Browsing by Author "Asirifi, Mary"
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Item Access to mental healthcare services for Black women during perinatal period – a scoping review(2024) Kemei, Janet; Asirifi, Mary; Nelson, Jody; Khalema, Emily M.; Adekoya, Augustina T.; Satimehin, Oluwaseun O.Black women in Canada are at higher risk of poor mental health outcomes; this is associated with disparities such as poor access to healthcare and aggravated by racial discrimination and poor living conditions. This study aims to investigate the extent and nature of literature on access to mental healthcare services for Black women during the perinatal period in regions outside of Africa and the Caribbean.Item Balancing burden and bond: challenges and motivations of family caregivers of patients with end-stage liver disease in Northern Ghana—a qualitative inquiry(2025) Asirifi, Mary; Dogtir, Jacob Deri; Adjei, Charles Ampong; Kyei, Josephine M.; Ani-Amponsah, Mary; Marfo, Emmanuel A.Objective: This study explored the burdens and motivations of family caregivers (FCs) for patients with end-stage liver disease (ESLD) in a tertiary hospital in Ghana. Design: A qualitative exploratory, descriptive approach with a purposive sampling technique was adopted. Data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis. Setting: Participants were recruited from a tertiary hospital in the Northern Region of Ghana. Participants: 15 FCs aged between 18 and 50 years caring for patients with ESLD were recruited. Results: The study’s findings revealed that FCs of individuals with ESLD encountered considerable challenges, including sleep deprivation, physical exhaustion, family conflicts, financial difficulties and social restrictions. These difficulties contributed to a sense of being overwhelmed as caregivers strived to fulfil their duties. Family bonds, reciprocal relationships and religious obligations were the motivation/driving force for FCs caring for relatives with ESLD. Conclusion: Integrating palliative care services in tertiary health facilities will reduce the burdens FCs of patients with ESLD face. Relevant stakeholders in the health sector need to develop culturally sensitive interventions to support FCs caring for patients with ESLD in Ghana.Item Examining research positionality - understanding self as a first step to transnational research(2023) McMillan, Colleen; Kwarteng, Alexander; Kenyon, Kristi H.; Asirifi, Mary; Call-Cummings, Meagan; Hauber-Özer, Melissa; Dazzo, Giovanni P.Transnational work requires a deep understanding of researcher identity to ensure unconscious bias and dominant forms of knowledge do not dictate study framing and implementation. Using practical examples from a transnational and interdisciplinary team conducting work on lymphatic filariasis in Ghana, this chapter demonstrates how unpacking layers of positionality is a vital first step to enable an understanding of researcher social location, power, learned knowledge, and cultural humility. Data collection methods were used as tools within the research team to explore identity and social location. During this extended process, team members uncover a deeper understanding of the sources of knowledge they brought to the project, how such knowledge was acquired, and the opportunities offered by intersectionality. Participation in the project's arts-based and participatory methods prior to data collection also enabled the research team to gain experiential knowledge of the vulnerability and bravery needed to engage with these methods and, in so doing, facilitated trust-building within the team and, subsequently, between researchers and participants. This chapter supports scholars, new and experienced, within the academy and the community, who seek to conduct self-reflective research that challenges default positions of power and centers social justice and marginalized voices.Item Implementing preceptorship in baccalaureate nursing program in middle-low-income countries: a scoping review(2024) Asirifi, Mary; Mensah, Bernard A.; Marfo, Emmanuel A.; dos Santos Nogueira de Góes, Fernanda; Padda, Sehzpreet K.; Satimehin, Oluwaseun O.; Knibbs, Trinity; Adjei, Charles A.Preceptorship is critical for developing the next generation of nurses to provide high-quality patient care. However, challenges in implementing preceptorship programs in low-middle-income countries (LMICs) exist, affecting the quality of nursing care provided to patients. Objectives: To (1) explore the extent of literature on key strategies for effective implementation of undergraduate preceptorship nursing education in LMICs and (2) identify existing evidence and gaps in the literature about the implementation of preceptorship in LMICs. This scoping review followed Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) methodological framework. We used the following databases: CINHAL, PubMed, MEDLINE, and ERIC to conduct a systematic search of articles in 2023. The search strategies were focused on the following aspects: “preceptorship,” “baccalaureate nursing program,” “implementation strategies,” and “Low-middle-income countries.” Criteria for including the studies were a) preceptorship in undergraduate/ baccalaureate nursing programs, b) primary quantitative and qualitative studies, and c) implementation of preceptorships in LMICs.Item Quantification of Black bodies: Anti-black racism in research(2025) Oyelana, Olabisi; Asirifi, Mary; Gateri, Hellen; Edwards, Fiona; Intungane, Doriane; Kimei, Janet; Khalema, EmilyIt is time to start interrogating the legacy of colonialism that privileges a Eurocentric system of knowing within the Canadian education system and examine the research experiences of Black researchers. Many Black researchers continue to struggle with limited funding to conduct their research projects and many are faced with the issue of access to research mentorship. While Black scholars are restricted by these challenges, the Black populations are often researched by researchers who have little or no knowledge about their experiences. Moreover, the colonial constructs that pervade academia have relegated Black scholars and racialized groups as illegitimate knowledge producers. Our stories of lived experiences cannot be adequately represented by numbers nor by an outsider. This article argues that it is time to center the research experiences of Black researchers through the lenses of Critical race theory (CRT) and an anti-Black racism (ABR) framework. Our way of knowing creates a space for us to share and document voices alongside participants. hooks (1994) offered a way to think about personal experience as, “a way of knowing that is often expressed through the body, what it knows, what has been deeply inscribed on it through experience” (p. 36). This complexity of experience can rarely be named from a distance, neither can it be quantified into statistical data. Therefore, this article is inspired by the research agenda of Black female academics from a Canadian university. We view ourselves as legitimate knowledge producers with a keen interest in decolonizing research.Item Reconceptualising preceptorship in clinical nursing education in Ghana(2019) Asirifi, Mary; Ogilvie, Linda; Barton, Sylvia; Aniteye, Patience; Stobart, Kent; Bilash, Olenka; Eliason, Cecilia; Achempim-Ansong, Gloria; Kwashie, Atswei; Aziato, LydiaClinical teaching in nursing education is a worldwide challenge that needs to be context specific (Vitale, 2014) in relation to local health needs, current and potential nursing roles within the health system, and availability of human, fiscal, and clinical resources. Resource constraints, however, pose greater challenges in low and middle-income countries. In 2016, we engaged in a four-cycle community-based participatory action research (CBPR) study to examine current issues in clinical nursing education in one school of nursing in Ghana and worked collaboratively with stakeholders in visioning possibilities for improvement. Congruent with the CBPR approach (Caine & Mill, 2016), a four-member Collaborative Research Team from the School of Nursing engaged in the study consulted in the development of the research as it progressed, collaborated in data analysis, determined priorities for action, and participated in devising and implementing recommendations.Item Reflecting on leadership development through community based participatory action research(2019) Asirifi, MaryThe need for leadership in nursing is well-documented and Domain Six of the doctoral section of the National Nursing Education Framework of the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) is Leadership. While there are likely many paths to achievement of these leadership components, the intent of this paper is to share my journey through iteration of and reflection on my PhD dissertation research focused on a four-cycle community-based participatory action research study (CBPR) related to clinical teaching in Ghana. The focus of CBPR is to engage the researcher and the participant group (community) in collaborative, and egalitarian processes to assess and problem solve an issue in the community. Similarly, leadership promotes collaborative interpersonal relationships among leaders and followers to address issues and institutes change strategies in policies. This paper presents my experiences in building leadership capacity through this scholarly endeavor (PhD thesis) in relation to the CASN guideline.Item Reflections on change theory and community-based participatory action research: congruent, similar or different?(2022) Asirifi, Mary; Ogilvie, Linda; Barton, Sylvia; Bilash, Olenka; Stobart, Kent; Aniteye, Patience; Kwashie, AtsweiWhile change is acknowledged as integral to all action research, literature linking the theories of change theoretically merits exploration. Are some theories of change more congruent to principles of action research than others? Does congruence depend on which type of action research and which change theory are being compared? During the implementation of a four-cycle community-based participatory action research (CBPR) project in nursing education in Ghana, such questions arose. This paper is an attempt to grapple with those questions. While Kotter’s eight-step theory of organizational change was chosen to guide this study, it became obvious that various elements of change theories were integrated in the study as it progressed. For Kotter’s organizational change theory to serve as an effective guide for the implementation cycles in the CBPR project, it must be conducted through the lens of critical social theory and a perspective on social and cultural change.Item Revisioning the possible: aligning blended IL instruction with principles of EBP for meaningful nursing instruction(2021) Nelson, Jody; Foster, Alison; Asirifi, Mary; Gates, Melanie; Su, Wanhua; Velupillai, NirudikaThe MacEwan BScN program supports development of skills and attributes in the domain of clinical practice, including information literacy (IL) interventions in Year 2. Addressing a noticeable trend in 2018 of fewer students making connections between IL and evidence-based practice (EBP), librarians and instructors collaborated on an IL redesign, integrating IL and EBP in a blended learning (BL) context. The redesigned IL intervention, which pulls from best practices in online EBP instruction in nursing (Kelly et al., 2016), was implemented in 2019 with revised learning outcomes. Literature on IL instruction and EBP learning points to similarities, synergies, and value of a more fulsome integration in teaching (Adams, 2012; Amit-Aharon et al., 2020). While Adams (2012) emphasizes the importance of teaching IL concepts through a disciplinary lens, Amit-Aharon et al. (2020) note the significant positive correlation between IL self-efficacy, EBP attitudes and knowledge, and future EBP implementation in practice. Purpose: This Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research investigates the impact of the redesigned BL IL intervention on YR 2 nursing students’ perceived EBP confidence, attitudes, and ability, using an adapted Student EBP Questionnaire (S-EBPQ) (Upton et al., 2016).Item Revisioning the possible: aligning blended IL instruction with principles of evidence-based practice for meaningful nursing instruction(2020) Foster, Alison; Nelson, Jody; Asirifi, Mary; Gates, MelanieSession Objectives: explore the impact of collaborative program assessment on IL revisioning, share our experience with reframing IL through a disciplinary lens, discuss the impact of revisioning on future instructional practices.Item Sharing stories of mothering, academia and the COVID 19 pandemic: multiple roles, messiness and family wellbeing(2022) Croxen, Hanneke; Jackson, Margot; Asirifi, Mary; Symonds-Brown, HollyThe Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused disruption. Responsibilities increased especially for people who identify as mothers needing to balance work and caring for their child(ren). Through the use of personal narratives, we explored our experiences as mothers who work in academia. The purpose of this commentary is to explore the commonalities of our experiences of trying to maintain the multiple roles and responsibilities demanded from us as mothers and academics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two themes emerged: multiple roles and responsibilities and embracing the ‘messiness’. The need to take on multiple roles simultaneously such as working from home and parenting was challenging. Embracing the ‘messiness’ demonstrated that caring for our children while working from home caused their needs and our time to focus on them to be compromised. Our work and productivity were impacted with minimal available support but this was not acknowledged within the business as usual practices of the university. The conditions that negatively impact us, also negatively impact our children. Children have needed to adjust to pandemic conditions and their support has been compromised due to the other competing demands mothers face. As academics, our future work will be informed and shaped from this experience, and so too will the growth and development of our children. Our experiences from this pandemic highlight the gendered inequities present within academia and the potential negative effects on child well-being. We call attention to this issue to help promote change and advocate for mothers working in academia and elsewhere.