BREAKOUTS 100

Wednesday, June 27^th    10:15am–11:15am  

 10:15am – 11:15am – Network Café

100: Developing Leadership Capacity through Mentorship

CHNC Standards & Competencies Standing Committee and CHN Leadership Institute Subcommittee: 
Ruth Schofield, Genevieve Currie, Francoise Filion, May Tao, Fay Michayluk, Andrea Baumann

Mentorship is an important tool in developing effective nursing leaders. In 2015 the Leadership Competencies for Public Health Practice in Canada was released which describes the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for public health nurses (PHN) to be effective leaders within the public health domain. Through a mentorship model PHNs can build capacity to develop these leadership competencies and influence, motivate, and enable others to take action on the social determinants of health and be agents of change. A literature review conducted by CHNC Community Health Nurses Leadership Institute identified elements of a successful mentorship program. For example one successful element identified in the literature was clear guidelines/expectations related to frequency of meetings, method of communication. In this network cafe the elements of the mentorship program will be described and discussed. Participants will learn about roles and expectations of mentors and mentees, develop a learning plan, participate in recruitment and the process of mentor/mentee matching, and become aware of available resources. Join us in this interactive network café as we participate in the development of a mentorship model for PHN leadership.

 

Learning Objectives:

 

• Become familiar with the elements of a successful mentorship program
• Be able to describe the CHN Leadership Institute mentorship program
• Participate in the formation of mentor/mentee dyads
• Learn about the mentorship program available resources

 

 10:15am – 11:15am - 60 minute Presentations

101: Community Health Nurses - Legal Risks in Community Health Nursing

Priscilla Akyea, RN, BScN, JD, Canadian Nurses Protective Society, Ottawa, ON

The Canadian Nurses Protective Society would be interested in participating in your upcoming conference. We (the CNPS®) are a not-for-profit society that offers legal advice, risk-management services, legal assistance and professional liability protection related to nursing practice in Canada to more than 130,000 eligible registered nurses and nurse practitioners.

We presented at your conference in 2017. The CNPS would be pleased to have a Nurse-Lawyer present again during your 2018 Conference on the topic of Legal Risks in Community Health Nursing.

Community health nursing is a unique area of nursing which may present unique challenges for nurses, including legal issues regarding documentation, informed consent, mandatory reporting obligations and client confidentiality. This presentation will provide nurses with an overview of various legal risks faced by community health nurses who practice in a variety of settings and provide nurses with direction on how to best protect themselves when practicing in this area.

A CNPS Nurse-Lawyer will provide a 45-minute presentation, which will review real-life court decisions, relevant legislation and practice standards to support the participant’s learning needs. The presentation will be followed by a 15-minute question and answer period. The presentation will be facilitated by way of a PowerPoint slideshow.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will develop a greater appreciation for legal risks that they may face in their practice setting

• Participants will identify risk areas in their practice setting and develop strategies for addressing them
• Participants will implement strategies to minimize professional risk associated with nursing practices
• Participants will become familiar with CNPS services

 

 10:15am – 10:40am  - 25 Minute Oral Presentations

103A: Monitoring Childhood Immunization Coverage in Saskatchewan – Using Panorama as a Tool

Rosalie Tuchscherer, Ministry of Health, Regina, SK,  Sazzad Khan, Ministry of Health, Regina, SK,  MaryRose Stang, Ministry of Health, Regina, SK

According to the World Health Organization, immunization coverage is a key measure of immunization system performance. Monitoring of the functioning of an immunization system enables identification of programmatic areas that are performing well and areas that need strengthening.

 

Panorama is a comprehensive, integrated public health information system. Of the five modules in the system, vaccine inventory and immunization have been implemented. The fully functional system will help public health professionals work together to effectively manage vaccine inventories, immunizations, investigations, and outbreaks. Panorama’s immunization module replaced the former Saskatchewan Immunization Management System (SIMS), in January 2015.

Learning Objectives:

 

• Describe the process in Saskatchewan to produce provincial and regional immunization coverage rates
• Understand the methodology for interpreting immunization coverage rates, including awareness of immunization coverage rates for Saskatchewan and specific areas / regions in the province
• Consider opportunities to improve immunization rates

 

 

104A: Identifying, Preventing and Addressing Elder Abuse in Canada: Role of Community Health Nurses

Omolayo Idowu, RN, BScN, MN, Toronto Public Health, Toronto, ON

The Blueprint for Action for Community Health Nursing in Canada calls for workforce development. This bold directive requires improved access to a range of professional development resources to advance community health nursing capacity. Elder abuse prevention has been identified as an essential component for all community health nurses (CHNs). Currently, over 4 percent of Canadian older adults are faced with some form of mistreatment. There is a demographic imperative to prevent and address elder abuse because the issue has devastating consequences, societal costs, and health outcomes for the elderly population. CHNs are challenged to acquire the necessary knowledge to effectively deal with suspected elder abuse cases.

This large urban health unit sought innovative professional development approaches to support CHNs in addressing elder abuse. As a Best Practice Spotlight Organization, a team conducted an extensive literature review, environmental scan, and interviews with key stakeholders to gain insight into the role of community health nursing practice in elder abuse prevention, detection and intervention.

The major findings highlighted the complexities associated with elder abuse and multiple barriers to tackle it. The findings indicate that one role is to educate CHNs to increase awareness; identify actions; and raise visibility of elder abuse. An effective solution involves all sectors of society. CHNs, through their presence in the community, can take a leadership role to give voice to this issue as well as foster intersectoral advocacy and collaboration among the multiple sectors of the community.

Implementation of a decision making algorithm; and trainings for CHNs were actionable in various settings. This is consistent with evidence that providing professional development and evidence-based tools to increase CHNs’ management of elder abuse; could ultimately improve overall quality of life of the Canadian elderly population.

Learning Objectives:

 

• Learn innovative professional development strategies used to advance knowledge on elder abuse prevention while contributing to excellence in nursing practice.
• Discuss barriers and facilitators of these strategies to elder abuse prevention; and how they support advancing CHN's role.
• Hear a personal story of one of the participants in identifying, preventing and addressing elder abuse with clients in the session.

 

105A: Taking Action for Refugees and Immigrants: Key Lessons Learned for Building Partnerships in Community Health Nursing

Dr. Sarah Kostiuk-Linford, EdD, RN, Saskatchewan Polytechnic Saskatchewan Collaborative, Regina, SK,  Jayne Naylen Horbach, MSH, RN, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Regina, SK

Saskatchewan has progressively become a province of diverse ethnicity and over the last two years, thousands of refugees and immigrants now call Saskatchewan home. Our journey in working with refuges and immigrants has revealed challenges and a glaring need for advocacy. Refugees’ and immigrant’s health issues often go undetected and unaddressed due to language barriers, cultural barriers, and a lack of culturally appropriate health services and resources. Community health nurses are leaders valuing equity and social justice and are in a position to advocate and facilitate cultural safe nursing care.

Community nurses view health as a resource for everyday living and aim to promote, protect and preserve the health of individuals, families and communities by addressing the social determinants. Culture is a social determinant of health and the community health nursing voice is critical in pursuing social justice for refugees and immigrants. Our innovative intersectoral partnership has revealed the continual need to promote, protect and restore the health of refugees living in Canada. This presentation highlights ideas for strengthening innovative partnerships with refugee and immigrant communities by establishing supportive environments and advocating to alleviate power imbalances as well as inequitable social relationships at all levels of the system. This presentation shares knowledge learned to assist undergraduate nursing education to better prepare graduates for global health and healthcare.

Learning Objectives:

 

• Those attending our presentation will gain insight on ideas for resource allocation in community nursing.
• Those attending our presentation will gain insight on creative ideas about inter-sectoral partnership.
• Those attending our presentation will gain insight on culturally safe care for refugees and immigrants.

 

 

106A: Leading Role Clarity: Nurses Describe Their Contributions to Public Health Practice

Karen Parkinson, BScN, RN, CCHN(C), Toronto Public Health, Toronto, ON,  Andrea Baumann, RN, MN, Region of Waterloo Public Health, Cambridge, ON

Nurses compose the largest group of professionals in public health, yet their roles are not well understood by the interdisciplinary team. The current political context of health system restructuring across Canada may lead to fundamental changes to the way public health services are delivered. Thus, this health unit is developing a Nursing Framework to articulate the roles, value and contributions of nurses to public health practice. After a literature review this phase involved consultation with nurses. It was critical to integrate the perspective of nurses themselves for the framework to accurately reflect practice.

The consultation with nurses elicited expert knowledge about their practice. These findings will be integrated into the organization’s Nursing Framework, which will help to clearly communicate the role and value of nurses. Similar strategies could be used in other practice settings to clarify and advance the role of community health nurses.

Learning Objectives:

 

• Participants will learn about strategies used to define CHN roles within an organization.
• Participants will learn about an innovative consultative process used to engage nurses.
• Participants will learn about the themes that emerged from the consultation with nurses.

 

  

10:50am – 11:15am -  25 Minute Oral Presentations

103B: Using Technology to Improve Client-Centered Care, Support Quality Improvement Initiatives and Strengthen Relationships Between Data and Action

Rachel Faye, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Regina, SK,  Nancy Kot, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Regina, SK, Kim Schommer, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Regina, SK,  Cheryl Ward, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Regina, SK,  Lisa Haubrich, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Regina, SK

Panorama is a web-based application that collects the key information assets required to mount a coordinated response to communicable disease. It was conceived as part of a number of measures intended to strengthen Canada’s capacity to respond to pandemic outbreaks of disease such as SARS. When implemented, Panorama will enhance Saskatchewan’s ability to deliver public health services and conduct surveillance. The current landscape is a patchwork, with multiple systems and paper records and electronic systems, supporting various lines of public health business resulting in a challenge to link and report on information currently stored in a variety of systems.

The future in Saskatchewan includes one public health record that includes immunization and communicable disease information that is accessible by approved public health providers throughout the province. The system will not only capture information required for provincial reporting but will also support ongoing investigations through the documentation of services and interventions taken. This will result in timely access to information to support improved surveillance and client centered care, a more efficient system through the reduction and duplication of services and overall improved communicable disease management.

This roadmap involves collaboration among public health and information technology services providers in the vision, the configuration and implementation of Panorama. The roadmap is complex and includes lanes that consider data entry, data extraction, electronic structures, and privacy. The outcomes include development and implementation of policies and procedures for communicable disease control including standard work and training, the development of improved reporting to support surveillance as well as program monitoring and evaluation.

The future of public health in Saskatchewan will be set on a solid foundation that will support the coordination among providers and improve the relationships between information and action.

Learning Objectives:

 

• Learn about the SK Investigations and Outbreak module implementation
• Describe the information assets that impact system implementation and the relationships between data and public health interventions
• Learn about the process to develop standard policies and procedures to support province wide implementation

 

104B: Seniors House Calls: Putting High Quality Care Transitions Into Practice

Lisa Bratkoski, BScOT, Saskatchewan Health Authority, Regina SK

I am writing to formally submit an abstract for the Seniors House Calls Program to present at the upcoming National Community Health Nursing Conference. 16.1% of Canada’s population is 65 or older and yet seniors account for 42% of Canadian Hospitalizations and 59% of overall days spent in hospital. Currently, our health care system was spending 60% of its healthcare dollars on 10% of the system’s users. The Seniors House Calls Program was created within the Regina region of Primary Health Care, Saskatchewan Health Authority to start addressing some of the root causes of these concerns.

We have an interdisciplinary team that is presently comprised of Nurse Practitioners, Community Paramedics, Registered Nurses, Pharmacist, Dietician, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapist, and Continuing Care Assistants. Our primary health care team provides accessibility to seniors with a comprehensive approach to address complex health care needs while optimizing independence in the community. We are committed to providing urgent in-home assessments, diagnosis and short term interventions for acute as well as chronic conditions. We develop care plans with the senior and their family/caregivers and provide urgent in-home interventions/diagnostics such as phlebotomy, intravenous therapy and medication prescription. In addition, we have connections with many of the community resources available to community-based seniors and work to connect our seniors with the resources that may best suit their individual needs. Since inception in April 2016, the Seniors House Calls Program has attended to well over 4000. In November alone our team was able prevent 73 unnecessary admissions to our Acute Care facilities.

Working in this capacity is relatively new in Canada and only being done in a handful of locations. In our presentation we would challenge the conference attendees to think differently about healthcare and how we meet the needs of the seniors in our communities.

Learning Objectives:

 

• Identify high quality care transition opportunities throught the healthcare continuum.
• Identify solutions to minimizing barriers to health care access in their communities.
• Identify the importance of the NP and RN on the interdisciplinary Primary Health Care Team.

 

 

105B: Is Nobody's Perfect an Effective Parenting Strategy for Newcomers? Highlights of an Outcome Evaluation

Margaret De Wit, PhD, CLSSGB, Toronto Public Health, Toronto, ON, Michele Antunes, RN, BScN, Toronto Public Health, Toronto, ON,  Mary Ann Gargano-Lucanie, RN, BScN, Toronto Public Health, Toronto, ON

Nobody's Perfect  (NP) is a parenting education and support program for young, single, socially, culturally or geographically isolated parents of children under six, with limited education and low income. NP aims to improve parenting knowledge and confidence and build family resilience using a participant-centred approach. This program is being implemented by every province and territory in Canada and has been evaluated many times. Providers of NP are increasingly faced with meeting needs of an ethno-culturally and racially diverse client-base however few studies have reported on the outcomes for newcomers. Toronto Public Health recently completed a mixed method outcome evaluation of the Nobody’s Perfect Program. This case-matched sample of 246 participants examined similarities and differences between newcomers and longer-term residents in their experiences with NP. A pre-post survey design based on validated scales from previous evaluations, intake and feedback questionnaires, and a supplementary set of focused interviews, were used in the study. The results show that NP is successful in achieving its primary program goals and objectives and has had a valuable impact on the newcomer population. Newcomers reported greater relative improvements in many outcomes than non-newcomer parents. This finding may have implications for future refinements to Programming in the Toronto context. Caution is also warranted in interpretation of findings due to missing data on select variables suggesting greater difficulty for newcomers in understanding study protocol despite the use of translation services. This reveals the need for previously validated scales to be re-examined and refined for the newcomer population. Despite various challenges identified in this study, Toronto Public Health has adapted Nobody's Perfect to respond effectively to the diverse needs of Toronto parents. Continuing attention to improvements will further strengthen its impact for newcomers and non-newcomers alike and enhance the health of our populations.

 

Learning Objectives:

 

• Identify key findings from Toronto Public Health’s first-ever outcome evaluation of the Nobody’s Perfect Program and consider how these findings can be applied to enhance practice in the context of child and family development.
• Identify the benefits of implementing Nobody’s Perfect with newcomers and find ways to adapt this program to meet the needs of this unique population.
• Recognize the limitations of this study design, particularly as it relates to a newcomer population and reflect on how these findings can inform future program evaluation efforts.

 

 

106B: Engaging in the Conversation

Ann M. Seymour, BSW, MSW, MSW, RSW, MBA, CFNHM, Mental Health Commission of Canada, Ottawa, ON

Mental Health First Aid, (MHFA) was developed in Australia by Betty Kitchener and Anthony Jorm in 2001 and is an evidence based program that is effective in increasing knowledge, provides necessary skills to enable others to respond to their family, friends or anyone experiencing a problem, and reduces stigma that surrounds mental health issues. In 2006, it was brought to Canada by the Alberta Mental Health Board, and the program was adapted to the Canadian context. In 2015, the MHFA-First Nations (MHFA-FN) model was completed and the first group of instructors were trained.

Just as many individuals know what to do if someone were to injure themselves or has a medical crisis i.e. break a leg, have a heart attack it is just as important to know what to do and how to respond if someone were experiencing an emotional breakdown, feeling distressed, depressed and potentially suicidal. MHFA is intended to preserve life if someone is a danger to themselves, provide help to prevent the mental health problem from getting worse, promote recovery, and provide comfort to the person experiencing a mental health challenge. Key aspects of the presentation will look at similarities and differences between a MHFA-Basic course and the MHFA-FN course. There will be an interactive session where we will review key tools of the MHFA -FN program; including the Circle of Support, Walking in Two Worlds and the EAGLE Model. The interactive session will provide a good overview on what the foundation of MHFA-FN course is about and how it will benefit each individual and how to respond to a mental health crisis.

By engaging in the conversation, there is increased knowledge and awareness regarding MHFA-FN, to support meaningful community engagement & awareness surrounding mental health issues and how to respond early before a crisis occurs.

Learning Objectives:

 

• INCREASE CONFIDENCE: Having open and honest conversations about mental health
• DECREASE STIGMA: Decrease social isolation for someone with a mental health problem
• KNOWLEDGE & GROWTH: As a community, working together to save lives