March 9, 2021

The study involves partnerships with six publicly–funded long-term care homes in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island implementing family support visitations, in line with their province’s public health directives, to increase family presence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It took the coronavirus pandemic to open our eyes to the deplorable state of so many of the nation’s long-term care homes: the inhumane conditions, overworked and underpaid staff, and lack of oversight. In this timely new book, esteemed health reporter André Picard reveals the full extent of the crisis in eldercare, and offers an urgently needed prescription to fix a broken system.
When COVID-19 spread through seniors’ residences across Canada, the impact was horrific. Along with widespread illness and a devastating death toll, the situation exposed a decades-old crisis: the shocking systemic neglect towards our elders.

University of Alberta researchers can publish their articles as Open Access with zero Article Processing Charge (APC) in most (over 900) SAGE journals, which operate on the hybrid subscription/OA model. A small number of journals are excluded; these titles are listed here.

When publishing with one of SAGE’s gold open access journals (click here for title list), University of Alberta researchers receive a 40% discount on APCs.

This APC waiver (hybrid journals) or discount (gold OA journals) is applied automatically when authors indicate their U of A affiliation during the article submission process.

CIHR’s 2021-2031 Strategic Plan establishes the context that will allow Canadian health research to be internationally recognized as inclusive, collaborative, transparent, culturally safe, and focused on real world impact. Further, the plan envisions a future where Canadian researchers are global leaders in the development of ground-breaking discoveries that improve lives, and where Indigenous communities will lead health research that focuses on resilience, wellness, and Indigenous Ways of Knowing, resulting in equitable health outcomes. Through our actions, Canada will be a global leader in the science of achieving health equity. Together with our partners and stakeholders, we will strive to achieve a society where social factors such as postal codes are no longer significant predictors of life and health expectancy, and where research evidence is integrated seamlessly with Canadian health policy and practice.

There is limited research on how knowledge translation of a domestic violence (DV) research network is shared. This lack of research is problematic because of the complexity of establishing a research network, encompassing diverse disciplines, methods, and focus of study potentially impacting how knowledge translation functions. Aims and objectives: To address the limited research, we completed a deliberative dialogue with the following questions: Is there a consensus regarding a coherent knowledge translation framework for a domestic violence research network? What are the key actions that a domestic violence research network could take to enhance knowledge translation? Methods: Deliberative dialogue is a group process that blends research and practice to identify potential actions. In total, 16 participants attended three deliberative dialogue meetings. We applied a qualitative analysis to the data to identify the key actions. Findings: The deliberative dialogue facilitated mutual agreement regarding four key actions: (1) agreement on a knowledge translation approach; (2) active promotion of dedicated leadership within an authorising environment; (3) development of sustainable partnerships through capacity building and collaboration, particularly with DV survivors; and (4) employment of multiple strategies applying different kinds of evidence for diverse purposes and emerging populations. Conclusions: The use of the deliberative dialogue has uncovered specific factors required for the successful knowledge translation of domestic violence research. These factors have been added to the Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) capacity framework to enhance its application for domestic violence research. Future research could explore these organisational, professional and individual factors further by evaluating them in practice.

BACKGROUND: Quality improvement collaboratives (QICs) bring together multidisciplinary teams in a structured process to improve care quality. How QICs can be used to support healthcare improvement in care homes is not fully understood. METHODS: A realist evaluation to develop and test a programme theory of how QICs work to improve healthcare in care homes. A multiple case study design considered implementation across 4 sites and 29 care homes. Observations, interviews and focus groups captured contexts and mechanisms operating within QICs. Data analysis classified emerging themes using context-mechanism-outcome configurations to explain how NHS and care home staff work together to design and implement improvement. RESULTS: QICs will be able to implement and iterate improvements in care homes where they have a broad and easily understandable remit; recruit staff with established partnership working between the NHS and care homes; use strategies to build relationships and minimise hierarchy; protect and pay for staff time; enable staff to implement improvements aligned with existing work; help members develop plans in manageable chunks through QI coaching; encourage QIC members to recruit multidisciplinary support through existing networks; facilitate meetings in care homes and use shared learning events to build multidisciplinary interventions stepwise. Teams did not use measurement for change, citing difficulties integrating this into pre-existing and QI-related workload. CONCLUSIONS: These findings outline what needs to be in place for health and social care staff to work together to effect change. Further research needs to consider ways to work alongside staff to incorporate measurement for change intoQI.

AIMS: To describe strategies nursing leaders use to promote evidence-based practice implementation at point-of-care using data from health systems in Australia, Canada, England and Sweden. DESIGN: A descriptive, exploratory case-study design based on individual interviews using deductive and inductive thematic analysis and interpretation. METHODS: Fifty-five nursing leaders from Australia, Canada, England and Sweden were recruited to participate in the study. Data were collected between September 2015 and April 2016. RESULTS: Nursing leaders both in formal managerial roles and enabling roles across four country jurisdictions used similar strategies to promote evidence-based practice implementation. Nursing leaders actively promote evidence-based practice implementation, work to influence evidence-based practice implementation processes and integrate evidence-based practice implementation into everyday policy and practices. CONCLUSION: The deliberative, conscious strategies nursing leaders used were consistent across country setting, context and clinical area. These strategies were based on a series of activities and interventions around promoting, influencing and integrating evidence-based practice implementation. We conjecture that these three key strategies may be linked to two overarching ways of demonstrating effective evidence-based practice implementation leadership. The two overarching modes are described as mediating and adapting modes, which reflect complex, dynamic, relationship-focused approaches nursing leaders take towards promoting evidence-based practice implementation. IMPACT: This study explored how nursing leaders promote evidence-based practice implementation. Acknowledging and respecting the complex work of nursing leaders in promoting evidence-based practice implementation through mediating and adapting modes of activity is necessary to improve patient outcomes and system effectiveness.

Background Front-line nurse managers provide direct oversight of healthcare delivery to ensure organizational expectations are enacted to achieve optimal patient and staff outcomes. Ensuring the job satisfaction of front-line nurse managers is key to retaining these individuals in their integral roles. Understanding factors influencing job satisfaction of nurse managers can support the development and implementation of strategies to enhance job satisfaction and sustain retention. Objectives We aimed to systematically review the empirical literature measuring determinants of job satisfaction among nurse managers. Design We conducted a systematic review using 11 electronic databases. Data sources Electronic databases included ABI Inform, Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, EMBASE, ERIC, Health Source Nursing, Medline, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, PsychINFO, and LILACS. Review Methods We included research articles that examined the determinants of job satisfaction for front line nurse managers. Two research team members independently reviewed and determined inclusion of each study. Each study was appraised independently for quality by two team members. Data extraction was completed for included studies. Content analysis was used to categorize factors associated with job satisfaction of nurse managers. Results A total of 5608 articles were screened for inclusion or exclusion. Thirty-eight studies were included. One hundred and one factors influencing nurse manager job satisfaction were reported in the included studies. Factors were grouped into three main categories: job characteristics, organizational characteristics, and personal characteristics. Most factors were examined in single studies or their relationship with job satisfaction was equivocal. However, across these categories, findings included significant positive relationships between autonomy, power, social support among team members and job satisfaction of front-line nurse managers. A significant negative relationship between job stress and nurse manager job satisfaction was indicated in the findings. Conclusions Promoting autonomy, power to make decisions for change, social support, team cohesion, and strategies to reduce job stress may improve job satisfaction of front-line nurse managers. Innovative solutions such as co-management and targeted administrative and electronic supports warrant further investigation. Promoting prosocial group behaviours, team building, coaching and the implementation of wellness programs may improve social support, team cohesion, and wellbeing. Examining factors of nurse managers’ job satisfaction beyond the acute care setting could provide further insights into the role that practice environment plays in nurse manager job satisfaction. Tweetable Abstract: Promoting autonomy, power to effect decisions for change, social support, team cohesion, and strategies to reduce job stress are important drivers of job satisfaction of front-line managers.

Long-term care facilities have been devastated by COVID-19, with one exception: a group of small facilities called Green Houses.