Transcultural Intergenerational Empowerment and Solidarity (TIES): A pilot intervention with Canadian-born and internationally educated health care providers
Project Lead(s)
Josephine Wong, Priscilla Boakye, Kenneth Fung, Nadia Prendergast
Team Members
Yamini Bhatt (external link) , Egbe Etowa, Esther Olukayode (external link) , Rade Zinaic (external link)
As more internationally educated health care providers immigrate to Canada, they are at the crossroads of successful integration socially and professionally, or becoming deskilled, marginalized and excluded.
Objective
As Canada faces an ongoing and increasingly severe shortage of health care providers, internationally educated health care providers (IE-HCPs) are being recruited to fill the gaps. While studies on the mental health and experiences of racism among HCPs in Canada are scarce, studies from other countries have shown that IE-HCPs experience many stressors associated with integration barriers and discrimination. Even rarer is research exploring how IE-HCPs contribute to dismantling and/or perpetuating racism against Indigenous, Black, racialized peoples, and other forms of discrimination within the health care systems in Canada.
Research question(s)
- How do Canadian born health discipline students and IE-HCPs conceptualize and experience “culture” and “being” in the context of living and working in a White settler nation such as Canada?
- How do non-Indigenous Canadian born health discipline students and IE-HCPs understand their relationships with Indigenous peoples and different racialized groups in Canada, and their roles in reconciliation, collective emancipation and social justice?
- How effective is the Transcultural Intergenerational Empowerment and Solidarity (TIES) intervention in promoting psychological flexibility, collective resilience, transculturation, and committed action to practice cultural humility in the context of anti-racism and collective emancipation?
Methodology
This study is underpinned by the principles of knowledge democracy/epistemic justice and collective emancipation. It will apply the Mi’kmaw Etuaptmumk (two-eyed seeing) approach and draw on philosophies of interconnection in developing and implementing the multi-prong TIES Model. Using a waitlist experimental design, the study will engage a total of 80 Canadian born health discipline students and IE-HCPs.
Status
The project is currently in progress.
Expected completion date: September 2026
Key words
Healthcare providers; healthcare systems; integration barriers; internationally educated health care providers
