On December 7, an engagement pop-up on 10C (where we bring questions and candy to the unit) created a lot of chatter, feedback and ideas.
Here is just a snippet* of what was discussed with staff that afternoon:
- PHC is just world class without trying. Take Crosstown – across the world other colleagues are coming in to see the clinic before they set up their own.
- It’s a different model of care here – we use a flexible model, trauma-informed care and believe it should be embedded into hiring practices where all staff understand this approach to care.
- We’re one of the only acute units in Canada to work with people with substance abuse.
- We should embed harm reduction into our care policy.
- We doing everything on the fly. It would be helpful to have plans and procedures formalized and put on paper to be able to share with other provinces, countries.
- We could increase our capacity to world class by sharing how we treat our patient population. Currently I don’t have a package that I can send to other people that outlines all of our data, care plans, nursing case standards, specific programming, etc. We are doing incredible stuff. It would be good to share it.
- In terms of our patients’ experience, we are very proactive and flexible in how our nurses are trained.
- People are actively using and we provide harm reduction supplies and have open conversations. No punitive approach or judgmental approach.
- We are world class in the implementation of the OPS (overdose prevention site) at St. Paul’s. The Royal Alex Hospital [in Edmonton] has a similar one but we are the only one in Canada that is low barrier, i.e., people don’t even need to give their name. This will need to be part of the new St. Paul’s.
* Please note: this is a high-level summary; all sentiments discussed were fully captured by the facilitators!
Formal in-person engagement activities have now come to an end – however, not to worry! Bloom has been extended so that we can continue to capture more great ideas and comments until December 31 – so whether it’s on shift, at home, in the line-up at the grocery store, head to bloomprovidencehealthcare.org and let us know what will make the next years at Providence meaningful to you.
Thank you again for making the first phase of creating our way forward a success.