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Browsing by Author "Wadams, Morgan"

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    Exploring moral categorizations and symbolic boundaries around people living with HIV in a correctional setting
    (2022) Wadams, Morgan
    For people living with HIV, correctional facilities, such as jails, prisons, and remand centers in Canada are complex environments at the intersection of health, justice, social, and criminal systems. Turning toward experiences, I explore my stories and observations of working with people living with HIV as a registered nurse in a large correctional facility in Western Canada. Based upon a narrative understanding of experience, I inquire into these stories and observations through the application of Mary Douglas’ theoretical work on purity versus impurity and Michèle Lamont’s symbolic boundary work. I engage in a reflective dialogue with the newfound meanings and understandings produced and discuss significant personal, practice-based, social, and policy-based insights within the context of my nurse researcher-practitioner role. This dialogue draws attention and raises questions about social practices, HIV-related stigma, correctional nursing, and the particularities of life evident within correctional facilities. Clinical implications for correctional nurses are discussed.
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    Narrative coherence and relational agency: unraveling transitions into and out of Alberta correctional facilities for people living with HIV
    (2024) Wadams, Morgan; Grekul, Jana; Lessard, Sean; de Padua, Anthony; Caine, Vera
    Incarcerated populations in Canada face significant health and social challenges during transitions into and out of correctional facilities. These transitions around facilities pose disproportionate barriers to care for people living with HIV. Further research is crucial to comprehend these challenges and reimagine care concepts for people who experience structural marginalization. In this article, experiences of transitions into and out of Alberta correctional facilities for people living with HIV are explored using narrative inquiry. Conducted in a Western Canadian city from 2021 to 2022, the inquiry revolved around two men living with HIV and a history of incarceration. Through co-creating field texts and narrative accounts, their unique experiences of transitions were explored through a collaborative process of analysis. Narrative threads from Bruce and Kyle showcased a lack of narrative coherence and the presence of tensions in their lives, while also emphasizing relational agency. The findings provide avenues for health, social, and justice practitioners who support and care for individuals living with HIV and a history of incarceration to think differently about transitions. By highlighting the importance of attending to the unique identities of individuals and relationships from a position of relational agency, the study advances our understanding of transitions. Recommendations for practice and policy include (a) fostering relational agency among practitioners; (b) challenging conventional views of transitions around correctional settings; (c) incorporating peer-based programming into support services; and (d) reconsidering health, justice, and social systems to better support communities disproportionately affected by high rates of incarceration and HIV.
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    Narrative coherence and relational agency: unraveling transitions into and out of Alberta correctional facilities for people living with HIV
    (2024) Wadams, Morgan; Grekul, Jana; Lessard, Sean; de Padua, Anthony; Caine, Vera
    Incarcerated populations in Canada face significant health and social challenges during transitions into and out of correctional facilities. These transitions around facilities pose disproportionate barriers to care for people living with HIV. Further research is crucial to comprehend these challenges and reimagine care concepts for people who experience structural marginalization. In this article, experiences of transitions into and out of Alberta correctional facilities for people living with HIV are explored using narrative inquiry. Conducted in a Western Canadian city from 2021 to 2022, the inquiry revolved around two men living with HIV and a history of incarceration. Through co-creating field texts and narrative accounts, their unique experiences of transitions were explored through a collaborative process of analysis. Narrative threads from Bruce and Kyle showcased a lack of narrative coherence and the presence of tensions in their lives, while also emphasizing relational agency. The findings provide avenues for health, social, and justice practitioners who support and care for individuals living with HIV and a history of incarceration to think differently about transitions. By highlighting the importance of attending to the unique identities of individuals and relationships from a position of relational agency, the study advances our understanding of transitions. Recommendations for practice and policy include (a) fostering relational agency among practitioners; (b) challenging conventional views of transitions around correctional settings; (c) incorporating peer-based programming into support services; and (d) reconsidering health, justice, and social systems to better support communities disproportionately affected by high rates of incarceration and HIV.
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    Problematizing transitions in relation to correctional centres for people living with HIV: unpacking the taken for granted
    (2021) Wadams, Morgan
    Transitions into and out of correctional facilities for people living with HIV are a pivotal point in the HIV treatment cascade where adherence metrics are significantly affected. In this paper I use Alvesson and Sandberg’s problematization method of literature analysis to critique and understand the taken-for-granted assumptions underpinning how knowledge is generated within the intersecting fields of HIV, transitions, and corrections. Utilizing problematization, two assumptions underpinning knowledge generation are identified: the linearity of the HIV care continuum model and the tendency to create and perpetuate spatially segregating metaphors of transitions inside versus outside correctional facilities for people living with HIV. These assumptions are discussed in the context of how they shape dominant ways of thinking and practicing in the field. An alternative way to understand transitions for people living with HIV is proposed along with recommendations to guide the HIV care practices of nurses and other healthcare providers.
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    Qualitative research in correctional settings: researcher bias, western ideological influences, and social justice
    (2018) Wadams, Morgan; Park, Tanya
    Within correctional settings, justice, health, and academic systems overlap for forensic nurse researchers. Within an environment that stresses social control, a researcher's implicit views, perspectives, and biases can lead to altering the authentic (re)presentation of a participant's experience. Researcher bias may be influenced by predominately western ideologies and societal discourses. Qualitative methods to mitigate and raise awareness around researcher biases include bracketing, unstructured interviews, diverse peer review, thinking inductively, investigator responsiveness, and critical reflexivity. In addition to these methods, a social justice perspective should be included within the ethical foundation, guiding theories, and worldview in the research design to mitigate western ideological influences on researcher bias. Finally, a forensic nurse researcher should consider how possible western influences on researcher bias impact their ethical and moral obligation to their participants, the research community, and their clinical practice.
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    Relational agency: an evolutionary concept analysis
    (2026) Wadams, Morgan; Kaushik, Mayank; Estefan, Andrew; de Padua, Anthony; Caine, Vera
    Background: Relational agency has emerged across care disciplines to conceptualize agency as a process embedded in relationships. However, the concept remains underdeveloped in nursing and allied health literature—fields where relationship-building is central to care provision. Purpose: We clarify the concept of relational agency and explore its relevance and application to nursing practice. Methods: An evolutionary concept analysis was conducted using Rodgers’ method. Discussion: Relational agency has four attributes: individual growth, collaborative action, relational knowing, and as something that can be cultivated. Antecedents included recognition, respect, and the creation of relational and/or physical spaces of opportunity. Consequences resulted in the development of trust, resilience, empowerment, and the ability to imagine new possibilities. Conclusion: Relational agency offers a framework for relationship-building in nursing and allied health practice. It holds particular promise for addressing health disparities and improving care for populations who experience systemic barriers and distrust in formal health systems.
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    A risky gamble on our national health: examining Alberta’s proposed exit from the Canadian Pension Plan
    (2023) Goulding, Karissa; Hansen, Natalie; Hartman, Dawson; Nasedkin, Stefan; Lauer, Camryn; Wadams, Morgan
    Alberta's proposed withdrawal from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is of significant importance due to its potential impact on the health outcomes of older adults in Canada. This presentation examines the potential health inequities that could arise from a reduction in CPP funds for seniors in and outside Alberta after a potential implementation of an Alberta Pension Plan (APP). The background encompasses the history and success of the CPP in reducing poverty rates among seniors. It also addresses the challenges and uncertainties surrounding the transition to an APP, particularly in light of economic shifts such as the impending decline of Alberta's oil industry and rising inflation rates. Considering health as a holistic state of well-being, we propose the use of a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to analyze the potential health outcomes of Alberta's departure from the CPP. Furthermore, we advocate for increased collaboration between federal and provincial health ministers and health leaders to ensure that all policies are screened for their potential impact on population health, with a focus on protecting the needs of vulnerable groups such as seniors. Overall, this presentation highlights the importance of evidence-based analysis and proactive policymaking to address the potential health repercussions of changes to pension plans affecting Canadian seniors.
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    Teaching assistant development and contributions in online, MOOC, and blended synchronous settings: an integrative review
    (2022) Wadams, Morgan; Schick-Makaroff, Kara
    Higher education institutions are expanding the delivery of online and remote learning courses in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In turn, numerous challenges are foregrounded for those who are preparing and delivering these courses, including instructors, administrators, and teaching assistants. The purpose of our integrative review was to explore both the roles and responsibilities of teaching assistants in online, blended synchronous learning, and massive open online course modalities, as well as strategies for administrators and instructors to develop teaching assistants in these settings. A systematic search of databases and grey literature produced 1,603 texts; 42 were included for data analysis. We found that teaching assistant roles and responsibilities, as well as strategies to develop teaching assistants, are diverse and often poorly articulated. Roles and responsibilities were dependent upon the teaching assistant’s previous pedagogical experiences and comfort level with non-traditional learning environments, institutional leadership, communication by the course instructor and the unique learning environment itself. Strategies to develop teaching assistants were often underdeveloped and influenced by resource constraints and institutional stances towards teaching assistant professional development programmes. Teaching assistant development across the three modalities primarily involved ‘on-the-job’ training, suggesting a need for further professional development interventions to be designed, delivered and evaluated. Results are synthesised and presented in pragmatic checklists to aid teaching assistants, instructors and administrators with planning and carrying out the three teaching modalities. Our results form the basis of an evidence-informed approach to assist institutions transitioning towards non-traditional learning environments.