Congratulations to Dr. Accurso and Team on 2026 Large TLEF Transformation Grant

Relational, Holistic and Formative Development

Presenter: Dr. Stanton Wortham, Charles Donovan Dean of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College
Date: May 29, 2026
Time: 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Location: Multipurpose Room, Ponderosa Commons North (PCN 2012)

All are welcome. Light refreshments will be provided.
Please RSVP before Monday, May 25th at noon.

Many educational approaches emphasize human development beyond knowledge and vocational skills—aiming at virtue, imagination, character, and other holistic goals. Interest in such holistic education is growing, even though most policies and assessments still focus on academic subjects. Approaches like social and emotional learning, well-being, whole child and character education, flourishing, 21st century skills, and civic education all reflect this broader vision. This talk focuses on one such approach: formative education. It has three interconnected elements: It promotes growth across intellectual, social, ethical, and spiritual dimensions and seeks integration among them so young people can become more whole. It gives students space to reflect on intrinsic values and life purposes, helping them make better decisions and pursue meaningful goals. It occurs in community, where others support students’ development, clarify their paths, and advance the common good, enabling individuals to flourish with others. The paper argues that formative education is a more comprehensive and adequate model of whole-person education than most alternatives and outlines a new interdisciplinary Department of Formative Education devoted to research and practice in this approach.

Stanton Wortham is the Charles Donovan Dean of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. He was formerly the Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. His books include Learning Identity, Bullish on Uncertainty, and Discourse Analysis beyond the Speech Event. His ten-year study with a Mexican immigrant community has yielded the book Migration Narratives (available for free download at https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/lynch-school/faculty-research/faculty-directory/stanton-wortham.html) and the film Adelante (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkclQtC45v8&t=4s). He has been a W.T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow and is an American Educational Research Association Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Education. He has received the American Educational Research Association Cattell Early Career Research Award, the University of Pennsylvania Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, and the Society for Linguistic Anthropology Sapir Book Prize. In both research and practice, he and his colleagues at Boston College are implementing a broad vision of “formative education,” in which educators are responsible for fostering the development of whole people, including interrelations among interpersonal, emotional, ethical and spiritual dimensions.

Empowering nurses to ensure safe medication management among older patients in homecare – a qualitative study using art-based methods

Presenter: Astrid Skogseth, PhD Candidate, Nord University, Norway
Date: May 12, 2026
Time: 1PM – 2PM
Location: Multipurpose Room, Ponderosa Commons North, PCN 2012

All are welcome. Light refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP by Thursday, May 7 at noon.

Background

Medication management in home care sits at a crucial intersection between patients’ needs and professional responsibility. It is shaped by the growing complexity of healthcare services delivered in people’s homes (1–3). Across countries, medication use has expanded in scope and intensity (4), a trend that is especially evident among older adults living with multimorbidity and polypharmacy (5). In this setting, home care nurses play a central role in ensuring safe medication management for older patients (4,6). In everyday practice, homecare nurses meet with patients daily, observe changes in health status, provide guidance, and identify risks associated with medication use (7). Since these encounters take place in the patient’s homes, relational and situational aspects add demands on nurses’ assessments and communication (8). The homecare nurses also face high workloads, time pressure, and increasing complexity with multiple interacting demands (7,9,10).

Reviews and empirical studies highlight the complexity of medication management for home-dwelling older adults and the structural conditions that shape nurses’ work. Research points to time pressure, fragmented information systems, inconsistent care, and growing dependence on digital tools as key challenges in medication management in homecare (3,7,11). However, research offers limited insight into how medication safety is enacted in day-to-day patient encounters (1). International initiatives highlight that communication, professional judgment, and cross-disciplinary collaboration are key to medication safety, yet there is little research on how homecare nurses can be effectively supported in these areas to ensure more person-centered approaches (4,8,11,12). Arts-based methods, including research-based theatre, remain rarely used in health services research (13), which continues to be dominated by conventional qualitative approaches (14,15). In contrast, theatre-based and other arts-based methods have been increasingly employed internationally in health professions education, with demonstrated benefits for communication, reflection, and empathy development (14). This study addresses a documented gap in Norwegian healthcare research, where arts‑based methodologies have so far been underrepresented in empirical health services research (16) despite their growing international evidence base (17,18).

The aim of this project

This project aims to strengthen nurses’ practice in home care services to ensure safer and more personalized medication use for older patients. This is done by exploring how nurses experience challenges in medication management and how applied theatre can empower and strengthen them in their interactions with older patients. Thereby increasing both parties’ autonomy.  

At its core, this project is about people: the older adults living at home with complex medication needs; the nurses striving to support them under demanding conditions; and the shared moments of connection, tension, and meaning that occur in the space between them. It is also about the belief that interdisciplinary perspectives can illuminate aspects of care that might otherwise remain unseen—revealing the subtle, embodied elements of communication that shape not only safety and adherence, but also dignity, autonomy, and trust.

This project is part of the larger MedSafe-Old project, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. MedSafe-Old aims to facilitate sustainable, personalized, and safe medication use for older adults living at home.

Three studies

Using qualitative methods (19,20), the empirical data were generated through a three-part research project that engaged a dialogue with the nurses and their practice. The studies have been conducted in three municipalities in rural Norway to ensure that the data collection is relevant across sociocultural and structural frameworks. The project consisted of three substudies. Study I involved individual semistructured interviews with 14 nurses. Study II consisted of theatre workshops conducted with a total of 17 nurses (5-6 in each workshop) and 5–6 older patients or next of kin, who took part in the final part of the workshop as an active audience. I facilitated the nurses’ co-creation and performance of scenarios grounded in difficult medication-related encounters, enabling them to explore alternative actions and collectively reflect on strategies to improve their practice. Study III comprised focus group interviews with the workshop participants.

References

1.            Dionisi S, Di Simone E, Liquori G, De Leo A, Di Muzio M, Giannetta N. Medication errors’ causes analysis in home care setting: A systematic review. Public Health Nurs. juli 2022;39(4):876–97. doi:10.1111/phn.13037

2.            Bielsten T, Odzakovic E, Kullberg A, Marcusson J, Hellström I. Controlling the Uncontrollable: Patient Safety and Medication Management From the Perspective of Registered Nurses in Municipal Home Health Care. Glob Qual Nurs Res. januar 2022;9:23333936221108700. doi:10.1177/23333936221108700

3.            Vaismoradi M, Lillo Crespo M, Turjamaa R. Nurse-led medication management for older people in home care: a systematic review of evolving nurse responsibilities in technology-assisted care. Home Health Care Manag Pract. 2025;37(2):140–53.

4.            Medication Without Harm: Policy Brief. 1st ed. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2024. 1 s.

5.            Nicholson K, Liu W, Fitzpatrick D, Hardacre KA, Roberts S, Salerno J, mfl. Prevalence of multimorbidity and polypharmacy among adults and older adults: a systematic review. Lancet Healthy Longev. 1. april 2024;5(4):e287–96. doi:10.1016/S2666-7568(24)00007-2

6.            Dumitrescu I, Casteels M, De Vliegher K, Mortelmans L, Dilles T. Home care nurses’ management of high-risk medications: a cross-sectional study. J Pharm Policy Pract. 2022;15(1):88.

7.            Martinsen B, Mortensen AS, Norlyk A. Nordic homecare nursing from the perspective of homecare nurses—a meta-ethnography. Br J Community Nurs. 2018;23(12):597–604.

8.            Manias E, Moran C, Allen J, Garratt S, McNaney R, Rawson H. Challenges and possibilities of enabling person-centred engagement in medication safety with older people living at home. Int J Qual Health Care. 2026;38(1):mzaf122.

9.            Godfrey CM, Harrison MB, Lang A, Macdonald M, Leung T, Swab M. Homecare safety and medication management with older adults: a scoping review of the quantitative and qualitative evidence. JBI Evid Synth. 2013;11(7):82–130.

10.         Stien T, Josefsson K. Alone and together: registered nurses’ experiences of work satisfaction in municipal home healthcare. BMC Nurs. 5. juni 2024;23(1):382. doi:10.1186/s12912-024-02051-3

11.         Strube‐Lahmann S, Müller‐Werdan U, Klingelhöfer‐Noe J, Suhr R, Lahmann NA. Patient safety in home care: A multicenter cross‐sectional study about medication errors and medication management of nurses. Pharmacol Res Perspect. 2022;10(3):e00953.

12.         Bosworth HB, Fortmann SP, Kuntz J, Zullig LL, Mendys P, Safford M, mfl. Recommendations for Providers on Person-Centered Approaches to Assess and Improve Medication Adherence. J Gen Intern Med. januar 2017;32(1):93–100. doi:10.1007/s11606-016-3851-7

13.         Fraser KD, Al Sayah F. Arts-based methods in health research: A systematic review of the literature. Arts Health. 2011;3(2):110–45.

14.         Majid U, Kandasamy S. The rationales for and challenges with employing arts-based health services research (ABHSR): a qualitative systematic review of primary studies. Med Humanit. 2021;47(3):266–73.

15.         Gao L, Peranson J, Nyhof-Young J, Kapoor E, Rezmovitz J. The role of “improv” in health professional learning: A scoping review. Med Teach. 2019;41(5):561–8.

16.         Kaasgaard M. Arts, culture, and health – a Norwegian literature review: Does it bring us any further? Kulturdirektoratet, 2025, “Kunnskapsoversikt: Kunst, kultur og helse”. ISBN: 978-82-810-5172-0. https://www.kulturdirektoratet.no/web/guest/vis-publikasjon/-/kunnskapsoversikt-kunst-kultur-og-helse. Nord J Arts Cult Health. 28. oktober 2025;7(1):1–4. doi:10.18261/njach.7.1.4

17.         Hobson WL, Hoffmann-Longtin K, Loue S, Love LM, Liu HY, Power CM, mfl. Active learning on center stage: Theater as a tool for medical education. MedEdPORTAL. 2019;15:10801.

18.         Lewandowska K, Bojnarowicz M. Practice‐based educational and theatre research: A scoping review. Br Educ Res J. juni 2025;51(3):1342–71. doi:10.1002/berj.4127

19.         Kvale S, Brinkmann S, Anderssen TM, Rygge J. Det kvalitative forskningsintervju. Gyldendal akademisk; 2015.

20.         Skilbrei ML. Kvalitative metoder: Planlegging, gjennomføring og etisk refleksjon. Fagbokforlaget; 2019.

Astrid Skogseth holds a bachelor’s degree in Theatre from Ohio University, USA. While initially oriented toward a career in institutional theatre, her educational and professional trajectory increasingly centered on participation, solidarity, and empowerment. This focus informed her master’s research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), where she examined devised theatre as an arena for empowerment among young people in the thesis” Youth Theatre and Participation: When the Invisible Becomes Visible”.

Alongside roles in cultural administration, CEO in small businesses, guiding business development, and being a project manager at regional and national levels, Skogseth has wide-ranging experience as a theatre director, author, and actor, with approximately 45 productions across traditional, devised, and applied theatre. All in Norway. Her artistic and pedagogical work emphasizes storytelling, empowerment, and collaborative meaning making.

Skogseth is currently undertaking a qualitative and interdisciplinary PhD project at Nord University in Norway (Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences), funded by the Norwegian Research Council. The project, “Theatre as a Tool for Safe Medication Use Among Home Dwelling Older Adults”, explores how applied theatre can generate qualitative insights into medication management related challenges in homecare encounters and aim to support healthcare personnel in promoting safe medication use. She has facilitated workshops and taught courses at Nord University but entered the PhD from professional art-practice rather than a traditional academic career pathway.