Sudbury (156 045 habitants), les francophones sont minoritaires : 38,9 %, dont 2 545 qui ne parlent pas du tout l'anglais 1. La population immigrante y est passée de 8 895 avant 1991 à 10 450 en 2006 1. Celle-ci contribue à la croissance démographique, socioéconomique et culturelle du Canada 2 ainsi qu'à la vitalité des communautés linguistiques minoritaires comme celle francophone de Sudbury. Toutefois, elle est confrontée à divers défis. Des études sur l'accessibilité des services de santé pour les communautés linguistiques minoritaires et sur la santé des communautés ethnoculturelles et immigrantes montrent qu'il y a encore nombre d'iniquités en santé 3-9. Cet article vise à révéler, à travers des expériences concrètes, des iniquités de santé liées à la langue et au fait d'être immigrant(e) dans un milieu de culture différente. Aperçu conceptuel Francophone correspond ici à la définition inclusive qui renvoie aux personnes ayant une connaissance particulière du français, même si ce n'est pas leur langue première 10. On inclut ainsi toute personne utilisant le français à domicile et pour qui c'est la langue d'intégration, la langue officielle du Canada apprise en premier lieu et celle dans laquelle la personne est plus à l'aise. Les participants à l'étude sont des immigrants pour qui le français est la « première langue officielle parlée (PLOP) » 11. Immigrant est employé comme terme générique incluant toute personne établie au Canada, mais née à l'extérieur, de parents non canadiens. Aucune distinction n'est faite ici entre immigrants récents, de longue date ou nouveaux arrivants 12. Enfin, dans culture, nous incluons valeurs sociales, religion, éducation, croyances, us et coutumes, ethnicité, etc. C'est un déterminant complexe : [l]a culture et l'origine ethnique proviennent autant des antécédents personnels que des facteurs plus larges liés à la conjoncture sociale, politique, géographique et économique. Sur le plan multiculturel, les problèmes de santé démontrent la nécessité de tenir compte de l'interaction des facteurs physiques, mentaux, spirituels, sociaux et économiques simultanément 13. L'existence de services de santé ne suffit donc pas à garantir leur utilisation, car « Even when health care resources are geographically accessible, language and cultural barriers are sometimes a problem » 14 .

Background Despite a recognized need for midwives to provide post abortion care, there exist barriers preventing them from integrating lifesaving skills such as manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) into practice. This collaborative research with the Professional Association of Congolese Midwives (SCOSAF), sought to understand how certain midwives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have overcome barriers to successfully integrate MVA for post abortion care. Specifically, in order to provide locally-driven solutions to the problem of inadequate post abortion care in the DRC, this study aimed to identify examples of positive deviance, or midwives who had successfully integrated MVA in complex working environments following an in-service training facilitated by their midwifery association, SCOSAF. Methods Creswell’s mixed method comparative case study design was used to identify positive deviant midwives who had practiced MVA one or more times post training and to explore their strategies and enabling factors. Other midwives who had not practiced MVA post training permitted for a comparison gro cup and further interpretations. Sources of data included a sequential survey and semi-structured interviews. Results All 102 midwives invited to be surveyed were recruited and 34% reported practicing MVA post training (positive deviant midwives). No statistical significance was found between the two groups’ demographics and practice facility type. Overall, both groups had positive attitudes regarding midwifery-led MVA and legalization of abortion. Positive deviant midwives demonstrated and described more confidence and competence to practice and teach MVA. They were more likely to identify as teachers and overcome interprofessional barriers by teaching MVA to physicians, medical students and other midwives and position themselves as experts during post abortion emergencies. Conclusion Results provided important insight to midwives’ integration of post abortion care in Kinshasa. Strategies used by positive deviant midwives in emergencies allowed them to navigate challenging contexts in order to practice MVA, while simultaneously increasing the credibility of their profession and the dissemination of evidenced-based MVA practice. Programs designed to work with and promote positive deviant midwives as knowledge brokers could be tested for their overall impact on the diffusion of midwifery-led MVA to improve access to safe, respectful reproductive care.

Communication is essential to providing quality primary care. Linguistic concordance between patients and physicians has been linked to improved health outcomes and greater patient satisfaction. Although Canadian Francophones often struggle to access linguistics concordant health services, the concept of the active offer of French Language Services (FLS) has emerged as a means of ensuring the availability of such services and improving the francophone patient experience.  However, the impact of language concordance and the active offer of FLS on patient satisfaction among Ontario Francophones remain largely unknown. Patient satisfaction surveys were collected as part of a continuing education program targeted at family physicians in Northeastern Ontario.  Participating physicians distributed patient surveys consisting of select patient satisfaction questions from the Physicians Achievement Review (PAR) and select questions from the Active Offer of French Language Services in Minority Context Measure. Valid surveys were received from 235 patients. Just under half of these (44%) identified as Francophones, 62.6% had a French-speaking family physician; however, only 17.2% reported regularly speaking in French with their family physician.  As hypothesized, there was a consistent tendency for Francophones who experience stronger linguistic concordance with their family physician to report higher satisfaction scores. Francophones who regularly speak French with their family physicians were more satisfied ( = 4.63) than those who rarely/never speak French ( = 4.29, F(1; 83) = 4.852; p < 0.05).   There was also a statistically significant interaction between the patients' language of preference and the service language. Francophones who prefer French and regularly speak it with their family physician (linguistic concordance; adj= 4.82) were significantly more satisfied than those who prefer French yet rarely/never speak it (linguistic discordance; adj= 4.06, F(1; 75) = 11.950; p < 0.001). Furthermore, a positive correlation between patient satisfaction and the active offer was observed in Francophones (r = 0.49, p<0.001). The present findings provide evidence of the impact of linguistically adapted health care services on the satisfaction of Ontario Francophones and suggest that patient satisfaction may be improved through the active offer of FLS. A larger and more diverse sample is required to confirm these findings.

Background: Despite a recognized need for midwives to provide post abortion care, there exist barriers preventing them from integrating lifesaving skills such as manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) into practice. This collaborative research with the Professional Association of Congolese Midwives (SCOSAF), sought to understand how certain midwives in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have overcome barriers to successfully integrate MVA for post abortion care. Specifically, in order to provide locally-driven solutions to the problem of inadequate post abortion care in the DRC, this study aimed to identify examples of positive deviance, or midwives who had successfully integrated MVA in complex working environments following an in-service training facilitated by their midwifery association, SCOSAF.Methods: Creswell’s mixed method comparative case study design was used to identify positive deviant midwives who had practiced MVA one or more times post training and to explore their strategies and enabling factors. Other midwives who had not practiced MVA post training permitted for a comparison group and further interpretations. Sources of data included a sequential survey and semi-structured interviews. Results: All 102 midwives invited to be surveyed were recruited and 34% reported practicing MVA post training (positive deviant midwives). No statistical significance was found between the two groups’ demographics and practice facility type. Overall, both groups had positive attitudes regarding midwifery-led MVA and legalization of abortion. Positive deviant midwives demonstrated and described more confidence and competence to practice and teach MVA. They were more likely to identify as teachers and overcome interprofessional barriers by teaching MVA to physicians, medical students and other midwives and position themselves as experts during post abortion emergencies.Conclusion: Results provided important insight to midwives’ integration of post abortion care in Kinshasa. Strategies used by positive deviant midwives in emergencies allowed them to navigate challenging contexts in order to practice MVA, while simultaneously increasing the credibility of their profession and the dissemination of evidenced-based MVA practice. Programs designed to work with and promote positive deviant midwives as knowledge brokers could be tested for their overall impact on the diffusion of midwifery-led MVA to improve access to safe, respectful reproductive care.

Abstract Scientific AbstractBackground: This collaborative research with the Professional Association of Congolese midwives (SCOSAF) in the province of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo sought to understand how midwives have integrated manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) for post abortion care.Methods: A positive deviant approach to Creswell’s mixed method comparative case study design was used to identify midwives who have integrated MVA post training and to explore enabling factors. Case group comparisons of positive and non-positive deviant midwives provided further interpretations.Results: All 102 midwives invited to be surveyed were recruited. They included 34% who reported practicing MVA post training. No statistical significance was found between the two groups’ demographics and facility type. Overall, groups had positive attitudes regarding midwifery, MVA, and legalization of abortion. Positive deviant midwives demonstrated and described more confidence and competence to practice and teach MVA. They were more likely to identify as teachers and overcome interprofessional barriers by teaching MVA to physicians, medical students and other midwives and position themselves as experts during post abortion emergencies.Conclusion: Results provided important insight to midwives’ integration of post abortion care in Kinshasa. Strategies used by positive deviant midwives in emergencies allowed them to navigate challenging contexts in order to practice MVA, while simultaneously increasing the credibility of their profession and the dissemination of evidenced-based MVA practice. Programs designed to work with and promote positive deviant midwives as knowledge brokers could be tested for its overall impact on the diffusion of midwifery led MVA to improve access to safe respectful reproductive care.