Healthy studies

 
The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario contributed more than $250,000 to fund two studies investigating low breastfeeding rates among Aboriginal women, and slip and falls by patients at the region’s hospital.

Proponents of both studies say the results could lead to better health for people in the region and help health-care officials come up with solutions to encourage the first subject and prevent the second.

Rhonda Crocker Ellacott, vice-president and chief nursing executive at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, said the hospital is averaging about 40 reported falls a month at the hospital, a number they would like to see drastically reduced.

A partnership with the University of Ottawa and 10 other health-care organizations, she said no stone will be left unturned when it comes to lowering the number of falls, and consequently injuries related to the falls, throughout their organization.

"(We want to implement) several strategies that may include screening of high-risk seniors upon admission, looking at the environment around the patient, knowing that patients fall typically right around their bedside, looking at leash restraints, making sure nurses are doing frequent checks on their patients when they need to get up to use the washroom, when they need to receive pain medication and that kind of thing, really coaching our patients and families to work as partners with us in the care process," Crocker Ellacott said.

She added that not all falls are likely reported through official channels, so that’s an area that needs work too.

Lakehead University researcher Karen McQueen said her study will focus on why Aboriginal women stop breastfeeding earlier than other Canadian parents, and will use staff from the Anishnawbe Mushkiki Centre to encourage parents to stick with it longer.

"The benefits of breastfeeding are widely documented for infants, mothers and society," McQueen said on Friday.

She added there are breastfeeding support groups in the city, but none that focus specifically on Aboriginal women, the vast majority of whom avoid them altogether.

"Some of the things with peer support is that people receive support from people they consider like themselves. So we think it would be beneficial to have Aboriginal mothers giving peer support," McQueen said.

Sheila Marcinyshyn, a pre- and post-natal educator at Anishnawbe Mushkiki, said breastfeeding has traditionally been part of the Aboriginal culture, but over the years it’s gradually fallen out of favour.

A study like this could reverse the trend, she said, noting change is already being noticed through education.

"There’s one mother that hadn’t breastfed her first and second baby, and is now trying to breastfeed with her third and has been successful. It’s stories like that that make us … want to get back to our ways," Marcinyshyn said.

Both studies will be developed using the provincially mandated best practice guidelines.