This week in engagement findings: learning, mentorship, growth, and innovation
The research that was done in the lead-up to last fall’s engagement – i.e., reviewing of previous surveys, reports, assessments, stats, etc. – informed the themes captured in the 5-minute(External link)(External link) and 15-minute summaries(External link)(External link) and gave insight into the areas where you’ve already told us that PHC is doing well, where PHC can get better, and ideas you had to bridge the gap between.
Using these insights, four questions were crafted to dig a bit deeper into some of the areas where we needed more of your input to help put together a 7-year plan that will pave the way to Providence 2026. Those questions explored our people, our vision, our uniqueness, and our pursuit of world class.
This week we’re shining a light on another consistent bucket of feedback that we heard from you last fall: PHC’s attitude towards continual learning, mentorship, growth, and innovation.
Big bucket, right?
But it all kind of makes sense grouped together because a culture where every person can learn, grow, imagine and bring forward new ideas, and feel like their voice is heard and that they’re being invested in, seems like the type of world-class organization that can make the biggest difference to the people we serve. And that feels like a place where we would all want to work and stay and tell our talented friends about.
So win-win-win, really.
During engagement activities, the need and desire for research to be part of everyone’s job came through clearly. More specifically, the need to be inclusive (e.g., having everyone who works here the opportunity to be directly involved in research, formalizing patient involvement in research), the need to look beyond our own walls to see best practice, and the need for rapid knowledge translation to the bedside were some of the top soundbites. There was also a great sense of pride associated with our research success.
And when it comes to education, you shared about the need for ongoing professional development to not only benefit our patients and residents, but also as a way for you to feel invested in and valued by PHC. As testament to the importance of learning and research, the ask for more education and more resources to support educational and research endeavours came up 30+ times alone in the responses you gave to the “world class reputation” question.
But, enough summarizing – let’s hear some of the particular insights and ideas that you had to say during last fall’s strategic planning engagement activities:
• “We need to continue to build on education and networking with other centres and countries on how we disseminate information. Increasing our ability and capacity to translate knowledge, we have world class researchers and research programs, and the latest evidence from universities, but no good vehicle to share these learnings and put them into practice.” – MSJ Open Forum
• “Encourage and support nurse-driven research initiatives to create an environment of growth and improvement, and motivate peer-led change.” – Bloom comment
• “The fact that we have education, research and clinical care is really powerful because education and research drive those questions of “why” when it comes to care. And instead of just answering “because that’s how we do it” we are forced to think about it. And that’s what we want to be: a thinking organization.” – President & CEO Fiona Dalton
• “It’s about answering a specific problem or question like Dr. Montaner did with HIV/AIDS – not setting up a research centre for the sake of research but to solve a problem that requires research. Research should be solving a problem.” – SPH Open Forum
• “Create an innovation ecosystem – not a centre or an office or a room or a wall – an ecosystem that has everything to enable innovation. Access advisors, find out where the money is, have “hack-a-thons,” design thinking workshops and innovation capacity building series so that you have an environment that enables innovation.” – Corporate Services Open Forum
• “Look at global research into Elder Care that goes beyond first world examples. There are many different approaches that might be valuable if we explore a wider range of research into practices happening across the globe.” – Youville Townhall
• “Promote PHC as a “living lab”: small enough to be nimble AND academically influential enough to have a big impact. Have a can-do attitude!” – SPH Heart Centre staff member (via Bloom)
• “I love that everybody is consistently learning. People say to me “oh, you’re new and you’re learning; we are learning, too.” – Unit Coordinator, MSJ
• “I’ve worked at many sites across PHC – Holy Family, MSJ, St. Paul’s – and the amount of collaboration stands out. There is a strong focus on multidisciplinary assessments, opinions, and while there is a strong medical model, there is a “bottom-up trend” where input is solicited and valued. We need to build on this.” – Social Worker, SPH
• “Formalize patient involvement in research. Create a form that can be given out to all inpatients and out patients asking if they would like to be part of a research project.” Physician, SPH
• “Ending up in the OR was my goal. I am working towards being a nurse. You can tell that people who work here want to be here; it’s not just the money. They support my education goals – they want to help you get to where you want to be. People are very approachable, more of a team effort; don’t just do the work and go home. Everyone is willing to share what they know. It’s a caring environment, and a great place to learn.” – OR Porter, SPH
• “I appreciate and value the opportunity to teach and mentor others. Holy Family Hospital is a teaching facility with many new grads and practicum students.” – Staff Member, HFH
• “Train more leaders, not just CNLs and CNEs. There are significant gaps between front line nursing staff and leadership roles, and minimal support to build nursing staff up.” – MSJ Open Forum
• “Abolish the travel ban – we need to network and gain knowledge from other world-class facilities.” – LMC Lab Focus Group
• “People want more time to take courses – as an educator I hear that a lot. How can we have education days? A simulation lab would be really nice. Having time away from patient care for learning is key – you don’t absorb and learn as much in a 20 minute in-service while you are still caring for patients as if you are away in a classroom.” ICU Pop-up, SPH
• “If we had a trainer who was accredited by BCIT, we could provide clinical placements and retain graduate techs that way.” Lab Pop-up, SPH
That we nurture innovative ideas and find ways to support disruptive ones, that everyone who works here everyone sees their job as not just as doing the work but also thinking how do we do what we do a bit better – how transformative would that be for the people we serve, not just here but around the world?
We’re on a journey to some pretty exciting things over the next seven years – thanks for being part of it and weighing in on our way forward. Your input has been captured, summarized and shared with senior leaders to help validate the work we need to focus on to reach 2026 the Providence way.
If there’s anything missing in the high-level findings above, please don’t hesitate to be in touch.
Providence2026@providencehealth.bc.ca
See you back here on March 29 for our next round of engagement data highlights to be posted!
And if you haven’t had a chance to read up on what we have already shared around quality, safety, experiences and outcomes, and what’s working and not working for the people who work here, don’t wait another minute!