ICCER - Initiatives

Initiatives

2010/2011 Priority Initiatives:

In the 2010/11 year ICCER will focus on the following five initiatives:

Joint Placements between UofA and NorQuest College

ICCER objective(s) this initiative relates to – Foster innovation in education and training of care providers; Strengthen the effectiveness of clinical practicum experience in the continuing care environment; Promoting continuing care as a career of choice

Concept

NorQuest and the UofA educate and train complementary health professionals (e.g. Physical Therapists/Physical Therapy Assistants; Pharmacists/Pharmacy Technicians). These health professionals work closely in practice, but seldom have the opportunity to work together as students. This initiative would provide opportunities to have NorQuest and UofA students together in clinical placements. The emphasis would be on continuing care placements, but would not exclude other placement areas.

Outcomes

Better understanding of how to make pharmacy placements more effective in a continuing care setting.
Better understanding of whether students learning together before they go out on an interdisciplinary placement makes a difference to the learning that occurs during the placement.
Interdisciplinary/inter-institutional placements occurring between NorQuest and UofA rehab programs and pharmacy programs.

Evaluation of 2nd cohort of practical nurse (PN) students at NorQuest/Dickinsfield

Concept

Two separate evaluations were conducted on the 1st cohort of PN students at Dickinsfield. The first, through NorQuest, looked primarily at whether or not the students met licensure requirements. The second, led by ICCER, examined some of the workforce-related issues.

A second cohort of students has started at Dickinsfield. The evaluation of the program should continue, particularly as changes have been made based on the recommendations of the initial evaluation (at least the ICCER-led evaluation, the final report of the other evaluation is not yet completed).

However, the evaluation of the program should not be conducted on an ad hoc basis, and the two parts should be coordinated. This requires setting up an Evaluation Steering Committee, setting the evaluation questions, and organizing the appropriate evaluation team.

Outcomes

Evaluation of the PN project.

Define ICCER added-value to research faculty

ICCER objective(s) this initiative relates to – Stimulate and support research and its application to continuing care

Concept

ICCER touts itself as bringing added-value to the continuing care research community, but what does the community actually see as having benefit to them? We need to investigate what ICCER could and should do in order to provide benefit to the research community. One example of a benefit could be through developing linkages between researchers and community placements, such as Community and University Partnership (CUP) has done for children’s research. The project objective would be to stimulate research in the CC field and to be more proactive in linking together various organizations with the sector.

Outcomes

Understanding of how CUP has developed researcher/community linkages.
Plan to develop these linkages for the continuing care sector.

How to involve the supportive living sector more closely with ICCER

ICCER objective this initiative relates to – Share and exchange knowledge and expertise with the community

Concept

The Continuing Care Strategy indicates that the continuing care model of the future will have a significant expansion of the supportive living sector. This project will examine how ICCER, and the broader research and education communities, can work effectively with the supportive living community. It will look at the long term strategy for the system, and identify how ICCER and the supportive living sector can work together in a meaningful way.

Outcomes

Identification of how the supportive living sector could work more closely with ICCER.

Participate in the development of a NorQuest College/University of Alberta proposal to foster innovation in the education of health care professionals

Concept

ICCER would be a partner in developing a proposal for funding and implementation that would look at collaborative education between the UofA and NorQuest College. The project is being spearheaded by the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, but would include other faculties, such as Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, or Faculty of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Science (Nutrition). The proposed project has six pillars: i) joint education between NorQuest College and UofA (e.g. pharmacy students and pharmacy technician students); ii) curriculum for career laddering; iii) interdisciplinary component (rehab and nutrition are likely partners); iv) culture of curriculum (how to address gaps in practice through science/research); v) community engagement (specifically rural communities); and vi) distance learning. As a partner in the process, ICCER ensure that continuing care was included in all aspects of the project.

Outcomes

Development of a proposal to for funding for an education project in which ICCER would be a partner and would be able to influence the emphasis on continuing care.

Previous Initiatives:

Teaching Continuing Care Centre

CapitalCare, Alberta Health Services, NorQuest College and the University of Alberta have established a partnership to develop and operate a Teaching Continuing Care Centre in downtown Edmonton. The vision is to create a Centre of Excellence that provides leadership in integrating healthy aging, learning, innovation and research.

This unique building will provide an urban campus of care where a learning community is created and best practices in teaching, research and care are developed and used to enhance the quality of life for those served by the continuing care system. It will also ensure excellence in education for the students, future healthcare professionals. Students’ experiences will integrate them into the normal lives of the residents who live within the continuing care campus while simultaneously offering a variety of educational and training opportunities. Also integral to the vision, research is the third core component of the project (with care and teaching). This centre will stimulate and support relevant continuing care research, facilitate the transfer of research results into practice by providing an immediate venue for application, and support the development, trialing and teaching of leading continuing care practices.

To support this project, NorQuest College and the University of Alberta will be engaged in teaching and research within all health care disciplines including medicine, dentistry, nursing, rehabilitation, recreation, nutrition and pharmacy. By training and practicing together during their educational experiences, students from all the health care disciplines will, early on, establish collaborations and an increased understanding of each others’ roles (e.g., Physical Therapy Assistant students from NorQuest training with Physical Therapy students from the University of Alberta) that will benefit them and the interdisciplinary team in future practice settings. This educational focus will expand the already significant student focus within CapitalCare. As well, the partnership with the University of Alberta will support the expansion of CapitalCare’s existing research focus and commitment.

By fully integrating research and teaching into this Teaching Continuing Care Centre, it is anticipated that it will become a Centre of Excellence ensuring maximal quality of life, quality of care and safety for those living within the building as well as providing leadership that will result in improved quality of care throughout the continuing care system in Alberta and Western Canada. It will also support the development of skilled health care professionals, in all disciplines, with both a passion for and expertise in continuing care. Each partner, already recognized as leaders in their own primary areas of focus, will bring unique expertise to this collaboration. With a shared passion for excellence and desire to stimulate and achieve quality in all three core components of the Teaching Continuing Care Centre (care, teaching, research), this partnership will ensure synergistic opportunities and outcomes that would not be possible otherwise.

Continuing Care Research Inventory

Under the auspices of ICCER, the Alberta Centre on Aging is developing an inventory of all research in the continuing care sector in the Edmonton, Alberta area. The parameters for the inventory are:

Continuing Care: Ongoing care for individuals as they age that is provided in settings such as home living, supportive living, long-term care facilities, day hospitals, and day care. It excludes acute and sub-acute care provided in such settings as physicians’ offices, hospitals, and sub-acute units. It also excludes situations where individuals are residing in a housing complex where services, but not care, are provided; this would include assisted living complexes where residents receive services such as meals but this is due to a preference rather than a health care need. Issues include but are not exclusive to service delivery, clients’ profiles and outcomes, caregiving, and education in continuing care.

Age: All adults who need care; excludes pediatrics.

Research: Both funded and non-funded projects that have specific questions to be answered and go beyond standard clinical care and required routine data collection. It includes evidence-based, evaluative, and educational research; and MA theses and PhD dissertations. The research may be conducted by individuals with/without an affiliation with the partner organizations. Only projects where data was collected at/on facilities in the Capital region were included.

Time Period: Research conducted from 2005-present or ongoing analyses of data collected since 2000.

The completed inventory can be downloaded here.

Evaluation of the Joint NorQuest College/CapitalCare (Dickinsfield) practical nurse (PN) project

In 2008 NorQuest College and CapitalCare began piloting an innovative way of educating PNs. About 24 students began full-time training at the Dickinsfield facility, rather than on the NorQuest College campus, as is normally done. Although students at both Dickinsfield and NorQuest had 20 weeks of clinical practice, the pilot group was more focused in one setting (a long-term care facility, part of the continuing care sector).

Evaluation

This initiative was already being evaluated in terms of educational standards and skill competencies. That evaluation was necessary to determine if the alternative education has allowed the PN students to acquire the competencies required for licensure, and to meet the program outcomes. The educational-based evaluation used data collection tools based on the PN competency profile, program outcomes, and the Canadian Practical Nurse Registration Examination Standards, as required by the College of Licensed Practice Nurses of Alberta.

Equally important however, were the workforce planning issues. In 2009, under the auspices of ICCER, focus groups were conducted with PN students from both the Dickinsfield site and the main campus of NorQuest College. This evaluation was designed to answer some of the broad workforce planning questions related to the influence on career decisions the innovative approach to training and education had, and to the partnership between NorQuest College and CapitalCare in providing this pilot and whether this can be used as a model for future education/training programs at other sites.

As a result of the ICCER evaluation, changes to the rotations were put in place in September 2009 for the 2nd cohort of students.

For more information on these initiatives, please contact admin@iccer.ca