Breathe is a student-led literary and arts magazine whose goal is to provide a platform for creative expression about mental health issues and promote mental wellness among trainee healthcare professionals using student-submitted art and written pieces. Select pieces were published to improve readers’ understanding of and self-reflection on mental health. Common themes among the submissions include life outside of healthcare, imposter syndrome and coping with stress. This novel project had high satisfaction reported by 87.5% of surveyed readers. We advocate for improved mental health awareness and increased use of artistic expression as a coping strategy against stressors in healthcare education worldwide.

Physician parents encounter unique challenges in balancing new parenthood with work responsibilities, especially upon their return from parental leave. We designed a pilot program that incorporated 1:1 parental coaching to expectant and new physician parents and provided stipends for lactation support and help at home. Additional initiatives included launching a virtual new parent group during the COVID-19 pandemic and starting an emergency backup pump supplies program. There was positive feedback for our Parental Wellness Program (PWP), which was used to secure expanded funding. Pilot results showed that our program had a meaningful impact on parental wellness, morale, productivity, and lactation efforts.

Circumstances surrounding advances in stranding response and veterinary care have created a growing need for the long-term housing of captive sea turtles. However, the difficulty in recreating natural conditions in captive settings places a responsibility on caregivers to offset wild-type behavioural deficits with enrichment programming that is, preferably, commensurate with the limitations of each enclosure. Though standardised, multi-institutional behavioural monitoring programmes are currently lacking for marine turtles, facilities housing (or planning to house) sea turtles for the long-term are strongly advised to include ‘wellness’ as a fundamental part of their animal care protocol. Here, concepts of wellness and enrichment in sea turtles are reviewed, and a framework for developing longterm behavioural monitoring programming is provided.

Chronic diseases and preexisting conditions shape daily life for many archaeologists both in and out of the field. Chronic issues, however, can be overlooked in safety planning, which more often focuses on emergency situations because they are considered mundane, or they are imperceptible to project directors and crews until a serious problem arises. This article focuses on asthma, diabetes, and depression as common medical conditions that impact otherwise healthy archaeologists during fieldwork, with the goal of raising awareness of these conditions in particular, and the need to be more attentive to chronic diseases in general. Archaeological fieldwork presents novel situations that put those with chronic diseases and preexisting conditions at risk: environmental hazards, remoteness from medical and social resources and networks, lack of group awareness, and varying cultural norms. As a result, if chronic diseases are not attended to properly in the field, they can lead to life-threatening situations. Managing the risk presented by these conditions requires a group culture where team members are aware of issues, as appropriate, and collaborate to mitigate them during fieldwork. Descriptions of how chronic diseases affect archaeologists in the field are followed by “best practice” recommendations for self-management and for group leaders.

Field research requires careful preparation so as to protect the integrity of archaeological studies and ensure the health and wellness of our students and field crews. In this special issue, we hope to lay a foundation for securing health and wellness as elements of the ethical practice of archaeology fieldwork through discussions of common hazards and tools to prevent, prepare for, and address safety incidents in the field. Even as archaeology and other field sciences grapple with serious safety concerns such as sexual harassment and mental health, it can be tempting to view field sites as extensions of the classroom or office. But field research can be a high-risk endeavor where we are exposed to a range of hazards not typically encountered in a traditional learning or work environment. We reach across disciplinary boundaries toward outdoor leadership and backcountry medicine to introduce the concept of wilderness context to describe the remote—and not-so-remote—locations and conditions common to archaeology field research. These are places where small or unanticipated problems can quickly become serious incidents. By rethinking research sites as wilderness activity sites, we highlight how methodical preparation can help us craft more robust and ethical health and safety practices for all members of our teams.

Introduction: Medicine demands a sacrifice of physicians’ personal life, but culture has slowly changed towards valuing a balanced work life. Parental leave is linked to better physical and mental health, but policies and culture surrounding parental leave are largely unstudied in the Canadian Emergency Medicine landscape. Anecdotally, experiences vary widely. This study was designed to determine what proportion of Canadian Emergency Departments have formal parental leave policies (maternity, paternity, and other ex. adoption) and what proportion of Canadian EM physicians are satisfied with their department's parental leave policies. Methods: Two surveys were generated; one to assess attitudes and experiences of emergency physicians, and a second survey for department chiefs assessed the policies and their features. These were approved by the UBC REB and distributed through the CAEP Research Committee. Primary outcomes were physician satisfaction with their department's parental leave policy (4-5/5 Likert Scale), and departments with a formal parental leave policy (Y/N). Results: 38% (8/21) of department chiefs reported having a formal policy for maternity leave, 29% (6/21) for paternity leave, and 24% (5/21) other. The survey of Emergency Physicians revealed similar rates at 48% (90/187) maternity, 40% (70/184) paternity, 29% (53/181) other. Among physicians who were aware of them, 69% (62/90) were somewhat or very satisfied with the maternity leave policies, 58% (51/88) with paternity leave policies, and 48% (39/81) with other parental leave. Less than 10% were somewhat or very dissatisfied with any of these. Several department chiefs commented that they had never refused anyone parental leave, but have no formal policy. However, 87% (147/187) of physicians reported a formal maternity leave policy was somewhat or very important to them; similarly 80% (134/187) paternity leave. Less than 15% felt each was somewhat or extremely unimportant. Conclusion: Presence and type of parental leave policy varies across the country. Most physicians were satisfied with the support they had available, but the vast majority felt that a formal maternity and paternity leave policy itself was important. This study would suggest that, without actually changing practice, the introduction of a formal parental leave policy is of value. Our research group will use this data to collaborate on a template parental leave policy to be made available for this purpose.

Interdisciplinary research using qualitative methods was employed to investigate the barriers to and facilitators of cultural participation for First Nations Elders who use wheeled mobility and live on reserve in Ontario, Canada. Themes were extracted into three broad categories: (1) impact of Elder participation in cultural activities, (2) usefulness of wheeled mobility devices, and (3) barriers to participating in cultural events. Barriers included lack of transportation, inability to access the outdoors safely and independently, challenging reserve terrain, stigma of being “disabled”, and feeling like a burden. Findings suggest that wheeled mobility can increase the active participation of Elders in cultural events, but demonstrate a need to facilitate the use of wheeled mobility on reserves in Ontario, Canada.

Because of advances in treatment over the past 30 years, the number of older people living with HIV is growing. This is important for Indigenous Peoples in Canada, given their continuing over-representation in HIV diagnoses. However, little is known about the experiences of older, HIV-positive Indigenous Peoples. Taking a strength-based approach, this research explored how older Indigenous men with HIV conceptualize successful aging. Research was conducted in partnership with the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis men, ranging in age from 43 to 63 years who had been HIV positive for 10–29 years participated in sharing circles and interviews. An open analytic approach was used to explore the content of transcripts, and codes were collaboratively developed through an inductive and iterative process. From our analysis of commonalities across Indigenous groups, we offer our insights on the application of the successful aging model to Indigenous men aging with HIV.