I Dare You to Drink the Vinegar

It is surprisingly difficult to find any information that does not support the efficacy and benefits of harm reduction. I am a supporter of harm reduction (in the sense that I tend to let scientific evidence inform my nursing practice). I am a Registered Nurse, meaning scientifically collected evidence guides my practice. My philosophical viewpoint is strong. And so, it seems odd that there is a reluctance to accept the evidence of harm reduction as something to guide policy change. Similarly, if harm reduction is not something to be embrace, it also seems odd that this is not so much based on research being conducted that shows that there may be problems with it and identifies better alternatives to current policy or how more of the same can somehow lead to improvement in the lives of people who use substances.  So here we go, letting something that those in positions of power and privilege feel in their hearts determine public policy. Not surprisingly, most of the information that I

Abstract      The purpose of this paper is to challenge the dominant social order in mental health that upholds the use of seclusion rooms as a means of therapeutic intervention using a critical discourse analysis method. This researcher asks the question, why do seclusion rooms continue to be common practice on acute inpatient psychiatric units when they are not evidenced based practice? A critical discourse analysis is conducted using 13 research studies found on the Google Scholar and CINAHL databases using the search terms: seclusion, seclusion room, psychiatry, inpatient and mental health. Each article is analyzed to determine the paradigm that was used to guide the research. The text of each article was analyzed to uncover the power dynamics present in the seclusion literature and how these interact with cultural variables. The results show that there are distinct power dynamics evident in the literature that present the mental health client in a position of subordination, contr

This is it, the tricky first 12 weeks of a pregnancy where I have to try and not tell anyone that I am pregnant even though I want to tell everyone. Kel and I are waiting even longer because we don't want to tell Kel's family until after his cousin's wedding on Labour Day weekend. We'll see how effective that plan is as I will be 18 weeks pregnant by then thus the little fetus will likely be a noticable baby bump by that point. This is also the part of the pregnancy where I am constantly worried that I will have a spontaneously abortion before I make it through the first trimester. Right now I feel physically pretty good, exhausted but still have enough energy to go to the gym on my days off. I am having an overload of stuff going on right now between work, my three courses, Deia and now this new little fetus. Right now I am writing a paper on a discourse analysis of academic literature on seclusion room use. This is quite an interesting paper that is really informing