Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘Dave Holmes’

Jun 17

The Collision of Caring and Carceral Institutions


Our current ANS featured article is titled “Gender Influences in the Intersection of Acute Care: Registered Nurses and Law Enforcement – The Collision of Caring and Carceral Institutions” authored by Danisha Jenkins, PhD, RN; Candace Burton, PhD, RN and Dave Holmes, PhD, RN, FAAN, FCAN. We invite you to download the article while it is featured, and share your comments here! Dr. Jenkins shared this information about this work:

Danisha Jenkins

Over a decade ago, when working as a nurse in a detention center for children and adolescents, I was first introduced to my position in the intersection of nursing and law enforcement. I saw the ways in which nursing practice and ethics were deformed and often made impossible, when working within carceral walls. My heart was broken. I committed at that point to study and make visible this terrifying phenomenon I was participating in; one in which nurses became tentacles of a system causing unfathomable harm. As I continued my work in trauma and critical care, I continued to witness the carceral influence that pervaded in the acute care setting, particularly in the care of some of our most marginalized and at-risk communities. Today, as legislation is introduced such as requiring nurses to report patients and families for seeking such medical services as gender affirming and reproductive care, nurses increasingly must grapple with their role and interactions with law enforcement and the prison industry. This manuscript is one in a series that reports on a study titled “Care Incarcerated: The Intersection of Nurses and Law Enforcement in the Acute Care Setting”. We hope to strengthen insight and understanding as to the complexities, challenges, and dangers inherent to the intersection of these “caring” and “carceral” institutions.

May 28

Understanding the Experience of HIV-Positive Pregnant Immigrant Women


Featured now and available for download – “The Lived Experience of Pregnancy Among HIV-Positive Refugee Women: A Qualitative Study” by Teresa Chulach, PhD, RN, NP; Marilou Gagnon, PhD, RN and Dave Holmes, PhD, RN.  In this article the authors discuss themes from their phenomenological analysis which they belief can lead to culturally competent and culturally safe care. Dr. Chulach provided this background on their work:

After several decades of practice as both a nurse and nurse practitioner, the importance of understanding the lived experience in clients’ care is more apparent than ever. Such knowledge is essential if we are to assist clients

Teresa Chulach

Teresa Chulach

in confronting the challenges they encounter in addressing their health and social issues.

As a nurse practitioner working within a tertiary care immunology setting, I became unsettled by the health care systems seemingly inability to address the needs of HIV-positive refugee pregnant women and was further disturbed when I witnessed women dropping out of care completely.  As a graduate student at that time (Masters in Nursing) I attempted to gain further understanding of this phenomenon in development of my qualitative research proposal.  The proposal development spurred my interest inspiring me to go on and complete the research study in Doctoral education.  With the expert guidance of Dr. Marilou Gagnon, as a thesis supervisor and an esteemed thesis committee (Dr. Dave Holmes, Dr. Denise Moreau, Dr. Wendy Peterson) I embarked on a journey of discovery that shed light on the many influences that shaped the experience of pregnancy for HIV-positive refugee women in their new Canadian context.

Dave Holmes and Marilou Gagnon

Dave Holmes and Marilou Gagnon

This article presents the findings of the thesis project. The findings illuminate how pregnant HIV-positive refugee often find themselves situated within a liminal reality—a ‘in-between’ space that situates them neither there (country of origin) nor here (their host society of Canada). This liminal reality has implications for their health at the identity level (micro) the social level (meso) and is affected by macro-level policies. Yet, it is a space that also offers the possibility of transformation and the hope for something “new” to develop. We invite you to explore the experience of HIV-positive pregnant refugee women in this liminal reality. While this study is situated in the Canadian context we believe that it provides insight for other contexts as global migration and displacement continue to be predominant features of today’s society.