Emma Whelan | Dalhousie University (original) (raw)

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Papers by Emma Whelan

Research paper thumbnail of Working up a lather: the rise (and fall?) of hand hygiene in Canadian newspapers, 1986–2015

Critical Public Health, 2018

Hand hygiene is a long-standing concern in the health sciences literature, but its emergence as a... more Hand hygiene is a long-standing concern in the health sciences literature, but its emergence as a public health issue in the news is a more recent development. Drawing on Alan Hunt’s work on moral regulation and responsibilization, this article analyses 30 years of Canadian newspaper coverage of hand hygiene. Concerns associated with hand hygiene and trends in coverage were identified in a sample of 518 articles, published between 1986 and 2015. Although the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and H1N1 influenza epidemics emerged as important triggers, healthcare-associated infection (HAI) was the dominant trigger for hand hygiene coverage. The articles tend to present hand hygiene as a unidimensional approach to infection control. They tend to responsibilize individuals–first members of the general public, then healthcare providers and increasingly patients–for managing the risk of infection, rather than focus upon social, cultural, political and economic factors that would promote a more broad-based and structural response to HAI.

Research paper thumbnail of Learning Disabled Students and Access to Accommodations: Socioeconomic Status, Capital and Stigma

In the 1990s, Canadian universities began implementing policies to accommodate learning disabled ... more In the 1990s, Canadian universities began implementing policies to accommodate learning disabled students. While such policies appear to make post-secondary education more accessible, students must manage considerable complexity and absorb social and financial costs to receive accommodations. Through interviews with learning disabled students, this research explores the effects of socio-economic status (SES) on how, or whether, students access accommodations at a Nova Scotian university. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu and Goffman, this study suggests that SES affects students’ abilities to navigate the accommodation process successfully, and that accommodation policies, while important, may not ensure equal access to accommodations.

Research paper thumbnail of Sociomateriality: A Theoretical Framework for Studying Distributed Medical Education

Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Jan 31, 2015

Distributed medical education (DME) is a type of distance learning in which students participate ... more Distributed medical education (DME) is a type of distance learning in which students participate in medical education from diverse geographic locations using Web conferencing, videoconferencing, e-learning, and similar tools. DME is becoming increasingly widespread in North America and around the world.Although relatively new to medical education, distance learning has a long history in the broader field of education and a related body of literature that speaks to the importance of engaging in rigorous and theoretically informed studies of distance learning. The existing DME literature is helpful, but it has been largely descriptive and lacks a critical "lens"-that is, a theoretical perspective from which to rigorously conceptualize and interrogate DME's social (relationships, people) and material (technologies, tools) aspects.The authors describe DME and theories about distance learning and show that such theories focus on social, pedagogical, and cognitive considerat...

Research paper thumbnail of 'We stand on guard for thee': The problematisation of hand washing in Canada (presented at British Sociological Association MedSoc conference, York, September 2013)

Research paper thumbnail of How Classification Works, or Doesn't: The Case of Chronic Pain

Research paper thumbnail of The OxyContin crisis: Problematisation and responsibilisation strategies in addiction, pain, and general medicine journals

Research paper thumbnail of Prescribing Practices Amid the OxyContin Crisis: Examining the Effect of Print Media Coverage on Opioid Prescribing Among Physicians

The Journal of Pain, 2013

The pain medication OxyContin (hereafter referred to as oxycodone extended release) has been the ... more The pain medication OxyContin (hereafter referred to as oxycodone extended release) has been the subject of sustained, and largely negative, media attention in recent years. We sought to determine whether media coverage of oxycodone extended release in North American newspapers has led to changes in prescribing of the drug in Nova Scotia, Canada. An interrupted time-series design examined the effect of media attention on physicians' monthly prescribing of opioids. The outcome measures were, for each physician, the monthly proportions of all opioids prescribed and the proportion of strong opioids prescribed that were for oxycodone extended release. The exposure of interest was media attention defined as the number of articles published each month in 27 North American newspapers. Variations in media effects by provider characteristics (specialty, prescribing volume, and region) were assessed. Within-provider changes in the prescribing of oxycodone extended release in Nova Scotia were observed, and they followed changes in media coverage. Oxycodone extended release prescribing rose steadily prior to receiving media attention. Following peak media attention in the United States, the prescribing of oxycodone extended release slowed. Likewise, following peak coverage in Canadian newspapers, the prescribing of oxycodone extended release declined. These patterns were observed across prescriber specialties and by prescriber volume, though the magnitude of change in prescribing varied. This study demonstrates that print media reporting of oxycodone extended release in North American newspapers, and its continued portrayal as a social problem, coincided with reductions in the prescribing of oxycodone extended release by physicians in Nova Scotia.

Research paper thumbnail of Representations of OxyContin in North American Newspapers and Medical Journals

Research paper thumbnail of Politics by Other Means: Feminism and Mainstream Science Studies

Research paper thumbnail of Negotiating science and experience in medical knowledge: Gynaecologists on endometriosis

Social Science & Medicine, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of ‘No one agrees except for those of us who have it’: endometriosis patients as an epistemological community

Research paper thumbnail of Putting pain to paper: endometriosis and the documentation of suffering

Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 2003

Although the elusive and subjective nature of pain has been examined in compelling ways in health... more Although the elusive and subjective nature of pain has been examined in compelling ways in health studies, the implications for systems of pain documentation and measurement remain relatively unexplored. Two systems for the documentation of pain symptoms in women with endometriosis are examined, one developed by a gynaecological association and the other by a woman with the disease. All pain documentation systems must contend with a fundamental problem: that they permit the comparison only of accounts of pain, not of pains themselves. These two instruments shift attention away from the pain itself to evaluations of the perspectives of those accounting for and evaluating pain. It is argued that systems of pain measurement and documentation, rather than offering objective readings of pain, must be seen as the products of epistemological communities with particular interests, aims and methods which affect the construction of pain and its subjects.

Research paper thumbnail of Staging and Profiling: The Constitution of the Endometriotic Subject in Gynecological Discourse

Book Reviews by Emma Whelan

Research paper thumbnail of Feminism in Twentieth-Century Science, Technology, and Medicine

Contemporary Sociology, 2003

Page 1. FEMINISM IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY, AND MEDICINE EDITED BY ANGELA NH CREAGE... more Page 1. FEMINISM IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY, AND MEDICINE EDITED BY ANGELA NH CREAGER ELIZABETH LUNBECK & LONDA SCHIEBINGER WITH A FOREWORD BY CATHARINE R. STIMPSON Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Fibromyalgia Story: Medical Authority & Women's Worlds of Pain

Research paper thumbnail of Review of McHugh, Faces Inside and Outside the Clinic: A Foucauldian Perspective on Cosmetic Facial Modification

Canadian Journal of Sociology

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Not Tonight: Migraine and the Politics of Gender and Health. By Joanna Kempner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.

Research paper thumbnail of Working up a lather: the rise (and fall?) of hand hygiene in Canadian newspapers, 1986–2015

Critical Public Health, 2018

Hand hygiene is a long-standing concern in the health sciences literature, but its emergence as a... more Hand hygiene is a long-standing concern in the health sciences literature, but its emergence as a public health issue in the news is a more recent development. Drawing on Alan Hunt’s work on moral regulation and responsibilization, this article analyses 30 years of Canadian newspaper coverage of hand hygiene. Concerns associated with hand hygiene and trends in coverage were identified in a sample of 518 articles, published between 1986 and 2015. Although the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and H1N1 influenza epidemics emerged as important triggers, healthcare-associated infection (HAI) was the dominant trigger for hand hygiene coverage. The articles tend to present hand hygiene as a unidimensional approach to infection control. They tend to responsibilize individuals–first members of the general public, then healthcare providers and increasingly patients–for managing the risk of infection, rather than focus upon social, cultural, political and economic factors that would promote a more broad-based and structural response to HAI.

Research paper thumbnail of Learning Disabled Students and Access to Accommodations: Socioeconomic Status, Capital and Stigma

In the 1990s, Canadian universities began implementing policies to accommodate learning disabled ... more In the 1990s, Canadian universities began implementing policies to accommodate learning disabled students. While such policies appear to make post-secondary education more accessible, students must manage considerable complexity and absorb social and financial costs to receive accommodations. Through interviews with learning disabled students, this research explores the effects of socio-economic status (SES) on how, or whether, students access accommodations at a Nova Scotian university. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu and Goffman, this study suggests that SES affects students’ abilities to navigate the accommodation process successfully, and that accommodation policies, while important, may not ensure equal access to accommodations.

Research paper thumbnail of Sociomateriality: A Theoretical Framework for Studying Distributed Medical Education

Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Jan 31, 2015

Distributed medical education (DME) is a type of distance learning in which students participate ... more Distributed medical education (DME) is a type of distance learning in which students participate in medical education from diverse geographic locations using Web conferencing, videoconferencing, e-learning, and similar tools. DME is becoming increasingly widespread in North America and around the world.Although relatively new to medical education, distance learning has a long history in the broader field of education and a related body of literature that speaks to the importance of engaging in rigorous and theoretically informed studies of distance learning. The existing DME literature is helpful, but it has been largely descriptive and lacks a critical "lens"-that is, a theoretical perspective from which to rigorously conceptualize and interrogate DME's social (relationships, people) and material (technologies, tools) aspects.The authors describe DME and theories about distance learning and show that such theories focus on social, pedagogical, and cognitive considerat...

Research paper thumbnail of 'We stand on guard for thee': The problematisation of hand washing in Canada (presented at British Sociological Association MedSoc conference, York, September 2013)

Research paper thumbnail of How Classification Works, or Doesn't: The Case of Chronic Pain

Research paper thumbnail of The OxyContin crisis: Problematisation and responsibilisation strategies in addiction, pain, and general medicine journals

Research paper thumbnail of Prescribing Practices Amid the OxyContin Crisis: Examining the Effect of Print Media Coverage on Opioid Prescribing Among Physicians

The Journal of Pain, 2013

The pain medication OxyContin (hereafter referred to as oxycodone extended release) has been the ... more The pain medication OxyContin (hereafter referred to as oxycodone extended release) has been the subject of sustained, and largely negative, media attention in recent years. We sought to determine whether media coverage of oxycodone extended release in North American newspapers has led to changes in prescribing of the drug in Nova Scotia, Canada. An interrupted time-series design examined the effect of media attention on physicians' monthly prescribing of opioids. The outcome measures were, for each physician, the monthly proportions of all opioids prescribed and the proportion of strong opioids prescribed that were for oxycodone extended release. The exposure of interest was media attention defined as the number of articles published each month in 27 North American newspapers. Variations in media effects by provider characteristics (specialty, prescribing volume, and region) were assessed. Within-provider changes in the prescribing of oxycodone extended release in Nova Scotia were observed, and they followed changes in media coverage. Oxycodone extended release prescribing rose steadily prior to receiving media attention. Following peak media attention in the United States, the prescribing of oxycodone extended release slowed. Likewise, following peak coverage in Canadian newspapers, the prescribing of oxycodone extended release declined. These patterns were observed across prescriber specialties and by prescriber volume, though the magnitude of change in prescribing varied. This study demonstrates that print media reporting of oxycodone extended release in North American newspapers, and its continued portrayal as a social problem, coincided with reductions in the prescribing of oxycodone extended release by physicians in Nova Scotia.

Research paper thumbnail of Representations of OxyContin in North American Newspapers and Medical Journals

Research paper thumbnail of Politics by Other Means: Feminism and Mainstream Science Studies

Research paper thumbnail of Negotiating science and experience in medical knowledge: Gynaecologists on endometriosis

Social Science & Medicine, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of ‘No one agrees except for those of us who have it’: endometriosis patients as an epistemological community

Research paper thumbnail of Putting pain to paper: endometriosis and the documentation of suffering

Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 2003

Although the elusive and subjective nature of pain has been examined in compelling ways in health... more Although the elusive and subjective nature of pain has been examined in compelling ways in health studies, the implications for systems of pain documentation and measurement remain relatively unexplored. Two systems for the documentation of pain symptoms in women with endometriosis are examined, one developed by a gynaecological association and the other by a woman with the disease. All pain documentation systems must contend with a fundamental problem: that they permit the comparison only of accounts of pain, not of pains themselves. These two instruments shift attention away from the pain itself to evaluations of the perspectives of those accounting for and evaluating pain. It is argued that systems of pain measurement and documentation, rather than offering objective readings of pain, must be seen as the products of epistemological communities with particular interests, aims and methods which affect the construction of pain and its subjects.

Research paper thumbnail of Staging and Profiling: The Constitution of the Endometriotic Subject in Gynecological Discourse

Research paper thumbnail of Feminism in Twentieth-Century Science, Technology, and Medicine

Contemporary Sociology, 2003

Page 1. FEMINISM IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY, AND MEDICINE EDITED BY ANGELA NH CREAGE... more Page 1. FEMINISM IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY, AND MEDICINE EDITED BY ANGELA NH CREAGER ELIZABETH LUNBECK & LONDA SCHIEBINGER WITH A FOREWORD BY CATHARINE R. STIMPSON Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Fibromyalgia Story: Medical Authority & Women's Worlds of Pain

Research paper thumbnail of Review of McHugh, Faces Inside and Outside the Clinic: A Foucauldian Perspective on Cosmetic Facial Modification

Canadian Journal of Sociology

Research paper thumbnail of Review of Not Tonight: Migraine and the Politics of Gender and Health. By Joanna Kempner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.