Reflections on nursing and COVID-19 in light of health education

ABSTRACT Objective: To reflect on the nursing and pandemic of COVID-19 considering health education, health promotion, and the Ottawa Charter action areas. Methods: A theoretical-reflexive study on health education and health promotion concepts and the areas of action presented in the Ottawa Charter. Results: Educational actions are present in the contexts of epidemics and pandemics, as well as in the work of nurses, who need to be increasingly based on dialogue and individual and collective empowerment to enable users to adopt healthy and preventive behaviors - in this case, concerning COVID19. However, this professional needs effective and efficient public policy actions and measures based on scientific assumptions of health promotion. Final considerations: The actions of health education need to be increasingly valued because knowledge can be considered the first “vaccine” to combat any pandemic.

Power Struggles in the Implementation of Gender Equality Policies: The Politics of Resistance and Counter-resistance in Universities

This article develops an analytical framework to study the power struggles between status quo and gender equality actors underpinning the implementation of gender equality policies. While resistance to gender equality policies in different institutions has received considerable scholarly attention, examining this struggle in light of a multifaceted concept of power that encompasses both domination and individual and collective empowerment, we argue, offers a more accurate account of the possibilities of a feminist politics of implementation. Our analytical framework also accounts for the factors that enable resistance by dominant actors and counter-resistance by gender equality actors and the informal rules that are being upheld or challenged, respectively. Applying our framework to the study of Spanish universities, we identify both the forms and types of resistance that hinder gender reform efforts in higher education institutions and the counter-action strategies that seek to drive implementation forward and achieve institutional change.

Flowers for Sexual Assault Victims: Collective Empowerment through Empathy in Japan's #MeToo Movement

The #MeToo movement in Japan is usually considered to have started slowly, and it remains far smaller and quieter compared with those found in the United States or South Korea. Few celebrities or high-profile figures have come forward to support the movement, and even fewer powerful men have been brought down as a result of allegations of sexual assault. The strategy of naming and shaming has rarely been used, but there is collective empowerment through empathy resulting from a nationwide grassroots movement known as “Flower Demo.” This movement has provided victims with a safe space to share their experiences. Those breaking their silence have appeared in various sectors of society, and this has raised the social consciousness of deep-rooted sexism inherent in Japanese society.

DIMENSÕES DE EMPODERAMENTO DE MULHERES MÉDICAS DA SERRA CATARINENSE

Até a década de 1960, a medicina no Brasil era exercida majoritariamente por homens. A partir da década de 1970, a circulação as mulheres aumentaram nas faculdades de Medicina, aumentando gradativamente nas décadas seguintes. De uma profissão basicamente dominada pelos homens, a medicina passa a ser uma profissão onde a maioria dos novos médicos licenciados são mulheres. Essa pesquisa objetivou compreender o nível de empoderamento das médicas que atuam na serra catarinense. Os procedimentos metodológicos adotados foram: pesquisa descritiva, estudo de caso, com abordagem qualitativa. A pesquisa foi realizada com 15 médicas que atuam na serra catarinense. Foi utilizado um questionário com roteiro semiestruturado, contemplando as dimensões de empoderamento individual, relacional e coletiva. Buscou-se conhecer os principais desafios enfrentados pela mulher na área da saúde, gerando repercussão na organização e dinâmica do trabalho. Os resultados apontam que houve destaque para a dimensão individual e relacional, visto que, as entrevistadas apontaram fortemente os seguintes objetivos: (1) ser referência na área de atuação; (2) ser reconhecida pelo trabalho que executa, (3) ser ética e útil para a sociedade; (4) alcançar novos patamares na carreira; (5) ter muitos pacientes; (6) ter poder de aquisição de bens materiais; (7) descobrir o seu propósito na vida dentro da profissão e evoluir como ser humano; (8) ocupar cargos importantes; (9) trabalhar no que ama. Os resultados mostram que a atuação na docência no ensino superior contribui para melhorar o seu empoderamento, quando seis médicas afirmam que se sentem referência pelo seu exemplo profissional para futuras médicas. Palavras-Chave: Empoderamento feminino, medicina, mercado de trabalho. Abstract: Until the 1960s, medicine in Brazil was mainly exercised by men. From the 1970s onwards, the movement of women in medical schools increased and grew gradually over the following decades. In principle a career basically dominated by men, medicine becomes a profession where the majority of new licensed doctors are women. This study intends to understand the level of empowerment of the female doctors who work in the Santa Catarina Mountain Range and adopted descriptive research and case study, with a qualitative approach, as methodological procedures. The research was carried out with 15 female doctors who work in the Santa Catarina Mountain Range and used a semi-structured questionnaire, including the dimensions of individual, relational e collective empowerment. The research sought to know the main challenges faced by women in the area of health, generating repercussions on the organization and work dynamics. The results emphasized the individual and relational dimensions, since the interviewees strongly pointed out the following objectives: (1) be a reference in the area of operation; (2) be recognized for her work; (3) be ethical and useful to the society; (4) achieve new career levels; (5) have many patients; (6) have purchasing power of material goods; (7) discover your purpose in life within the profession and evolve as a human being; (8) hold important job positions; (9) work on what you love. Results prove that teaching in higher education contribute to improve their empowerment when six female doctors state that they see themselves as a reference for future female doctors by their professional example. Keywords: Women’s empowerment, medicine, job market.

Collective empowerment of an online patient community: conceptualizing process dynamics using a multi-method qualitative approach

Background Online communities for patients with chronic conditions are becoming healthcare providers. They gather to offer support and services, and to become a collective oppositional force. We found, however, that these communities and their collective power are rarely studied in the health services management literature, which focuses more on the empowering practices of healthcare professionals or patient participation. The aim of this study is thus to build a better understanding of the nature of patients’ collective empowerment and the processes underlying it. We carry out two exploratory qualitative studies to examine the motivations that drive chronically ill patients to engage in an individual and then collective empowerment process. Methods The first qualitative study involves four semi-structured interviews with experts. The second is a netnographic study carried out over a year on an online forum for people with thyroid disease. The latter has two phases: an immersion phase followed by one that traces the path of 21 forum members from their first message to their recognition as active members or even forum moderators. The data are analyzed through thematic and lexical content analyses. Results We were able to identify the different stages of the collective patient empowerment process and the criteria for progression though this process. Specifically, the first study sheds light on the unmet individual and collective needs of the patients. The second emphasizes the essential role of active contributors and their impact on the growth and power of the community. Conclusions This study looks at patient communities as a self-contained system and identifies the stages of collective empowerment that match the organization’s declared priorities: community, collaborative, productive, and societal. These results should help health professionals better take these online communities into account in patient care, improving their practices, and carrying out their policies. We call for future research into collective empowerment and its influence on patient behavior, the transformation of healthcare institutions, and the health services market.

Protocol for the Development and Rapid-Response Deployment of Pandemic Acceptance and Commitment to Empowerment Response (PACER) Training (Preprint)

BACKGROUND During a global pandemic, it is critical to rapidly deploy a psychological intervention to support the mental health and resilience of highly affected individuals and communities. OBJECTIVE This is the impetus behind the development and implementation of the Pandemic Acceptance and Commitment to Empowerment Response (PACER) Training, an online blended-skills building intervention to increase the resilience and wellbeing of participants while promoting their individual and collective empowerment and capacity-building. METHODS Based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and social justice-based Group Empowerment Psychoeducation (GEP), we developed the Acceptance and Commitment to Empowerment (ACE) model to enhance psychological resilience and collective empowerment. PACER program consists of six online interactive self-guided modules complemented by six weekly 90 minutes facilitator-led video-conference group sessions. RESULTS As of August 2021, a total of 325 participants have enrolled in the PACER program. Participants include frontline healthcare providers and Chinese Canadian community members. CONCLUSIONS The PACER program is an innovative intervention program with the potential for increasing psychological resilience and collective empowerment while reducing mental distress during the pandemic.

Spanish gay male subjectivity, body, intimacy, and affect on Instagram

This article analyzes how a neoliberal understanding of identity shapes gay subjectivity, body, affect, and intimacy in digital environments, particularly Instagram. This social media has become one of the most relevant elements of gay subculture in Western countries, including Spain. Neoliberalism usually reduces gayness to a sort of global marketable brand which is understood as an individual attribute rather than a collective identity that provides common ground to fight for LGBT rights and against homophobia. Drawing on previous research on online self-representation and gay subjectivity, we specifically explore this global pattern in Spanish gay users of Instagram. To this end, we examine posts containing the tag #gaySpain uploaded between April and May 2020. In general, our research shows that the profiles tend to provide narratives of successful personal self-engineering and self-promotion, rather than activism and collective empowerment. These narratives present the gay body as a commercial product or something to be admired and consumed, whilst affect is part of an online highly ritualized performance and communication, and by no means a force for social change. As part of self-representation in social media, intimacy is constructed on Instagram for a large audience as an attractive example of a thriving gay life; in simple terms, Instagram has become gay show business like other manifestations of this subculture such as the Pride march.

Rumiar nuestras heridas. Del dolor social a la potencia colectiva

The article explores in a conceptual way the possibility of processing in collective, group and personal spaces the multiple wounds of our biographies as a motor of problematization and collective empowerment. Taking as a base the intersection of Political ecology, environmental affectivity and bodies and emotions´ sociology; it reflects on the social wounds that make up our short and long memory in the midst of power relations and predation. It focuses on the ways in which «pain becomes silent», especially in the disaffection of violence towards the human and non-human. Finally, a conception of politics as a continuous (re) composition of life (in common) is proposed, in contrast to the idea of the reproduction of life, based on the etymology of the words composition and production.

Digital storytelling and the narrative turn in psychology: Creating spaces for collective empowerment

In this article, we propose a model that combines digital storytelling with narrative practice to create a facilitated peer-to-peer experiential learning space for collective empowerment. This model was inspired by an educational intervention that utilized participatory digital comic strip making to raise students’ awareness of bullying and its consequences. The makerspace involved allows for the creation of digital artifacts representing participants’ personal narratives. Narrative practice is grounded in the idea that there are no problematic people but rather not effective narratives about how people are supposed to act. Making digital stories, getting constructive peers feedback, and then releasing more polyphonic and adaptive sequel versions is proposed here as an effective way to raise participants’ awareness and help them integrate different points of view, as well as enrich their narratives on critical social phenomena. A significant advantage of the digital storytelling genre employed is that the digital artifacts produced have a concrete material presence: they can be shared, performed, or modified. Participants, with the help of their peers, participate in a group process facilitated by their teacher, aiming to locate and change problematic elements in their stories, and by doing so they materialize and consolidate the improvement in their personal narratives.