Christine Huel
- MScN (University of Northern British Columbia, 2015)
- BN (Athabasca University, 2010)
- RN Diploma (Lethbridge College, 2002)
Topic
The Social Organization of People’s Experiences Enhancing Health for their Young Children after Declining Vaccines
School of Nursing
Date & location
- Thursday, April 11, 2024
- 10:00 A.M.
- Human & Social Development Building, Room A451
Examining Committee
Supervisory Committee
- Dr. Karen MacKinnon, School of Nursing, University of Victoria (Supervisor)
- Dr. Anne Bruce, School of Nursing, UVic (Member)
- Dr. Shannon MacDonald, Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta (Outside Member)
External Examiner
- Dr. Rosemary Wilson, School of Nursing, Queen’s University
Chair of Oral Examination
- Dr. Margo Matwychuk, Department of Anthropology, UVic
Abstract
In this publication-based dissertation, I describe a Ph.D. research project with three manuscripts that seek to form a better understanding about people’s activities to enhance their family’s health after declining routine childhood vaccinations. My experiences as a registered nurse working with people who choose not to vaccinate their children ignited my interest in this topic. After not fully vaccinating, people have described contributing substantial amounts of time, effort, and financial resources towards activities that aimed to thwart vaccine preventable diseases in their families and enhance their children’s health. Declining vaccines was not just a choice, or a perspective confined inside of people’s minds. Their efforts to do “health work” for their family can be observed in different families and communities, at different times. Recognizing that what people do is as intensive as it is invisible has led me to engage in a dissertation that seeks to form awareness about this facet of vaccine refusal.
Using an Institutional Ethnography orientated approach, my dissertation research began illuminating how institutions within ruling relations influence the social organization of people’s experiences of health work that aims to enhance the health in their children while protecting their rights to choose which health treatments their children will receive. A JBI qualitative systematic review, a key informant interview, and a meta-ethnographic exploratory synthesis provided rich descriptions of informant’s health work for their children. My goal was to produce an understanding that assists people and healthcare providers, like nurses, to recognize potential influencing factors of vaccine hesitancy that may have gone unnoticed. From this understanding, I hope that healthcare providers and researchers recognize that respect for people’s “health work” can exist in tandem with a difference in opinion on the topic of vaccines.