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Students in the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of British Columbia have articulated challenges in understanding learning objectives in their oral epidemiology and statistics course. This study aimed to measure the impact of a course renewal intended to enhance student learning. Examples of educational interventions included providing more time for activities, increasing student interactivity, and integrating more hands-on applicable exercises using statistical software.An online mixed-methods survey using a 5-point Likert scale and open-ended questions was distributed to 43 dental hygiene students before the course renewal and again to a second cohort of 43 students after course revisions. The survey asked students to rank their levels of challenge and self-confidence in learning 23 of the course objectives throughout each academic year. Four semi-structured interviews were also conducted with faculty and staff members involved in teaching or coordinating this course to understand their experiences after the course revisions.Response rates were 32% to 57%. After the course renewal, the extent to which students in the entry-to-practice cohort felt extremely challenged to learn each objective was significantly reduced (25% vs. 3%,Providing students with more time to absorb their learning, increasing interactivity, offering timely feedback, and integrating applicable exercises using statistical software resulted in an enhanced learning environment.Les étudiants de la Faculté de dentisterie de l’Université de la Colombie-Britannique ont exprimé les difficultés à comprendre les objectifs d’apprentissage de leur cours d’épidémiologie et de statistiques buccodentaires. La présente étude vise à mesurer l’effet du renouvellement d’un cours afin d’améliorer l’apprentissage des étudiants. Les exemples d’interventions éducatives comprennent : accorder plus de temps aux activités, augmenter l’interactivité étudiante, et intégrer plus d’exercices pratiques, applicables au moyen de logiciels statistiques.Un sondage en ligne, effectué au moyen d’une méthodologie mixte qui utilise l’échelle de Likert en 5 points et des questions ouvertes a été distribué à 43 étudiants en hygiène dentaire avant le renouvellement du cours et une fois de plus à une deuxième cohorte de 43 étudiants après les révisions du cours. Au sondage, les étudiants devaient classer leurs niveaux de difficulté et de confiance en soi relativement à l’apprentissage de 23 des objectifs de cours, tout au long de chaque année universitaire. Quatre entrevues semi-structurées ont aussi été menées auprès du corps professoral et des membres du personnel qui participent à l’apprentissage ou à la coordination de ce cours en vue de comprendre leurs expériences à la suite des révisions du cours.Le taux de réponse était de 32 % à 57 %. Après le renouvellement du cours, la mesure dans laquelle les étudiants de la cohorte d’entrée en pratique ont éprouvé de la difficulté à apprendre chaque objectif a été réduite de manière significative (25 % par rapport à 3 %,Offrir plus de temps aux étudiants pour assimiler leur apprentissage, augmenter l’interactivité, offrir de la rétroaction ponctuelle, et intégrer des exercices applicables à l’aide de logiciels statistiques ont créé un meilleur environnement d’apprentissage.

From its 19th century origins, the modern western idealization of community planning has been about social justice, including the health and well-being of people and their environment, from the “garden cities” of the late 19th century to today’s healthy built environment work. But there has always been a dark side to this ideal. In North America, socio-legal frameworks were developed that deployed the language of “health” and “hygiene” to exclude specific groups of people from cities and towns. Indigenous peoples whose ancestral lands were adjacent to towns and cities were dispossessed of their territories and became the target of colonial bylaws that sought to criminalize their presence in urbanizing areas. Bringing together the fields of public health, planning and Indigenous studies, my research sought to understand how Indigenous experiences of health in urban areas have been discursively framed by colonization and continually impacted through settler colonialism. This case study explored how urban Indigenous community planning might be conceptualized at the nexus of health and justice in the work of one urban Indigenous organization, the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of BC (NCCABC). Through an examination of the day-to-day labours of frontline workers, I answered my primary research question: In what ways do the resurgent practices of NCCABC relate to the emerging theory and practice of Indigenous community planning? Information was gathered through immersive participation, interviews, a talking circle, and document analysis in four primary sites of study: NCCABC Health Services in downtown Vancouver, NCCABC Prince George office, and First Nations Courts in New Westminster and North Vancouver. In spite of immense jurisdictional and administrative challenges that create barriers for urban Indigenous peoples and organizations – and a political landscape that largely denies urban Indigenous claims to sovereignty and self-determination – frontline workers with NCCABC create alternative spaces of belonging through relational practices that emphasize personal accountability, integrity, trust, and the importance of culture and ceremony. These resurgent practices, I argue, inform an Indigenous community planning paradigm shift that challenges colonially imposed categories of being and belonging and creates community for diverse urban Indigenous peoples.

Objectives: Historical and ongoing colonial violence, racism, discrimination, criminalization, and intergenerational trauma continues to impact the health of Indigenous women (cisgender and transgender) and Two-Spirit Peoples. Previous and ongoing work clearly articulate the deeply harmful roles of colonialism and racism in continuing to systemically exclude Indigenous Peoples from accessing equitable and culturally safe healthcare. While the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified structural inequities, little attention has been paid to how the pandemic impacts healthcare access for Indigenous women and Two-Spirit Peoples living in urban settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors associated with experiencing difficulty accessing routine healthcare in a cohort of marginalized urban Indigenous women and Two-Spirit Peoples on the ancestral, occupied territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations in what is now referred to as Metro Vancouver, Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: Data were drawn from AMPLIFY, a study of Indigenous cis and trans women and Two-Spirit Peoples in Metro Vancouver. Analyses drew on baseline and semi-annual questionnaire data collected with sex workers and women living with HIV from October 2020-August 2021. We used bivariate and multivariable logistic regression with generalized estimating equations (GEE) to model correlates of experiencing difficulty accessing a family doctor, nurse, or clinic for routine healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic in the last 6-months., Results: Amongst 142 marginalized Indigenous women and Two-Spirit Peoples (199 observations), 27.5% reported difficulty accessing routine healthcare. In multivariable GEE logistic regression, participants who had ever been pregnant (AOR:4.71, 95% CI:1.33-16.66) experienced negative changes in psychological and emotional well-being (AOR: 3.99, 95% CI: 1.33-11.98), lacked access to culturally safe health services (AOR:4.67, 95% CI:1.43-15.25), and had concerns regarding safety or violence in their community (AOR:2.72, 95% CI:1.06-6.94) had higher odds of experiencing recent difficulty accessing routine healthcare., Discussion: Findings are in line with the BC Commissioned In Plain Sight report which recommends the need for accessible, culturally safe, anti-racist, and trauma-informed routine healthcare for marginalized Indigenous cisgender and transgender women and Two-Spirit Peoples during the current and future pandemics. More community-based research is needed to understand access needs for culturally safe routine healthcare amongst marginalized Indigenous cisgender and transgender women and Two-Spirit Peoples.