Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a neurodevelopmental disability that affects those prenatally exposed to alcohol (PAE). Healthcare professionals’ roles concerning FASD consists of prevention messaging, screening for alcohol consumption during pregnancy, referrals for diagnostic assessments for those with PAE, and supports for people with FASD. Barriers associated with providing care to individuals with FASD include; lack of knowledge/training, stigmatization of alcohol use during pregnancy and limited diagnostic teams. These barriers result in unnecessarily poor health outcomes for mothers and their children. Existing literature highlights that health professionals play important roles in connecting people who are pregnant and individuals with PAE to available supports to mitigate adverse, and long-term health outcomes. This study aims to identify the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of those employed in the health sector in New Brunswick (NB) to educate and address gaps/misinformation about FASD to improve healthcare provision. Online surveys co-developed with the NB FASD Centre of Excellence (“Centre”) were distributed to healthcare providers across NB examining demographic information, knowledge, attitudinal behaviours, practices, and knowledge sharing preferences. Diverse samples of survey participants will be interviewed to obtain in-depth perspectives. Survey data will be used to generate descriptive statistics and correlational relationships while interviews will provide rich descriptions that better explain survey results. The Centre, as primary knowledge users, will use the study findings to prioritize tailored training initiatives in NB to improve health outcomes for those with FASD and people who consume(d) alcohol during pregnancy.