Utilizing Experience Bundles: A Novel Approach to Improving Quality of Care in Long-Term Care.

People-centred care is foundational to healthcare excellence. One urban Canadian long-term care residence recently participated in an initiative titled "Improving the Care Conference Experience" to engage residents and families in annual care conferences. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement introduced "care bundles" to group evidence-based practices within standard processes. For this initiative, one health region's Experience in Care team co-developed, implemented and evaluated an "experience bundle" for inclusive care conferences with key stakeholders including residents, family members, direct care providers and leadership. Our ongoing goal is to collaboratively create a culture shift from "doing to/for" to "doing with."

Healthcare provider perspectives on emergency department-initiated buprenorphine/naloxone: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Take-home buprenorphine/naloxone is an effective method of initiating opioid agonist therapy in the Emergency Department (ED) that requires ED healthcare worker buy-in for large-scale implementation. We aimed to investigate healthcare workers perceptions of ED take-home buprenorphine/naloxone, as well as barriers and facilitators from an ED healthcare worker perspective. METHODS: In the context of a take-home buprenorphine/naloxone feasibility study at a tertiary care teaching hospital we conducted a descriptive qualitative study. We conducted one-on-one in person or telephone interviews and focus groups with ED healthcare workers who cared for patients given take-home buprenorphine/naloxone in the feasibility study at Vancouver General Hospital from July 2019 to March 2020. We conducted 37 healthcare worker interviews from December 2019 to July 2020. We audio recorded interviews and focus groups and transcribed them verbatim. We completed interviews until we reached thematic saturation. DATA ANALYSIS: We inductively coded a sample of transcripts to generate a provisional coding structure and to identify emerging themes, which were reviewed by our multidisciplinary team. We then used the final coding structure to analyze the transcripts. We present our findings descriptively. RESULTS: Participants identified a number of context-specific facilitators and barriers to take-home buprenorphine/naloxone provision in the ED. Participants highlighted ED conditions having either facilitative or prohibitive effects: provision of buprenorphine/naloxone was feasible when ED volume was low and space was available but became less so as ED volume increased and space decreased. Similarly, participants noted that patient-related factors could have a facilitative or prohibitive effect, such as willingness to wait (willing to stay in the ED for study-related activities and buprenorphine/naloxone initiation activities), receptiveness to buprenorphine/naloxone, and comprehension of the instructions. As for staff-related factors, time was identified as a consistent barrier. Time included time available and time required to initiate buprenorphine/naloxone (including time building rapport). Healthcare worker familiarity with buprenorphine/naloxone was noted as either a facilitating factor or a barrier, and healthcare workers indicated that ongoing training would have been advantageous. Many healthcare workers identified that the ED is an important first point of contact for the target patient population. CONCLUSION: Integrating a buprenorphine/naloxone program into ED care requires organizational supports (e.g., for managing buprenorphine/naloxone within limitations of ED volume, space, and time), and ongoing education of healthcare workers to minimize identified barriers.

Exploring the Impact of Storytelling for Hospitalized Patients Recovering from COVID-19.

There are mental and physical deficits associated with COVID-19 infection, particularly among individuals requiring hospitalization. Storytelling is a relational intervention that has been used to help patients make sense of their illness experiences and to share their experiences with others, including other patients, families and healthcare providers. Relational interventions strive to create positive, healing stories versus negative ones. In one urban acute care hospital, an initiative called the Patient Stories Project (PSP) uses storytelling as a relational intervention to promote patient healing, including the development of healthier relationships among themselves, with families and with healthcare providers. This qualitative study employed a series of interview questions that were collaboratively developed with patient partners and COVID-19 survivors. The questions asked consenting COVID-19 survivors about why they chose to tell their stories and to flesh out more about their recovery process. Thematic analyses of six participant interviews resulted in the identification of key themes along a COVID-19 recovery pathway. Patients' stories revealed how survivors progress from being overwhelmed by their symptoms to making sense of what is happening to them, providing feedback to their care providers, feeling gratitude for care received, becoming aware of a new state of normal, regaining control of their lives, and ultimately discovering meaning and an important lesson behind their illness experience. Our study's findings suggest that the PSP storytelling approach holds potential as a relational intervention to support COVID-19 survivors along a recovery journey. This study also adds knowledge about survivors beyond the first few months of recovery.

Exploring the Relational Intervention of Storytelling: A Qualitative Study of the Patient Stories Project in a Single ICU.

OBJECTIVES: Our study objective was to explore nurses' experiences of how the Patient Stories Project, an intervention consisting of garnering and sharing ICU survivor stories with the ICU team, influenced their perceptions of the value of their work and their nurse-patient relationships. DESIGN: This was a qualitative descriptive case study that used thematic analysis. SETTING: This study was conducted in a single, 34-bed adult ICU in a Canadian tertiary care teaching hospital, serving a mixed medical and surgical patient population and employing over 200 nurses. SUBJECTS: Semistructured focus groups with 12 ICU nurses were conducted between June 2019 and July 2019. INTERVENTION: The Patient Stories Project is a systematic process for collecting and sharing former patients' stories. On a regular basis, former ICU patients return to the ICU to say, "thank you," share their experiences, and tell their stories to staff. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Storytelling through the Patient Stories Project gives meaning to nurses' work and provides avenues for nurses to think about their work more positively. Key themes were as follows: 1) perspective taking, 2) emphasizing the value in caring, 3) providing positive closure, 4) engendering team belonging, and 5) building a sense of hope. CONCLUSIONS: This study addresses the Critical Care Societies Collaboratives "call to action" to create a healthy work environment. Nurse focus group participants articulated how an initiative such as the Patient Stories Project may augment the relational aspects of work that are important to nurses, as well as their patients and families. Our study results have implications for the importance of using storytelling as a relational strategy to protect against depersonalization and cynicism, elements of burnout.

Why Do We Need Wobble Rooms during COVID-19?

The "wobble room" is a wellness intervention designed to guide staff through unpredictable times that are not going away quickly. Emergency department teams are accustomed to trauma events and trauma debriefing, but the prolonged uncertainties and fears associated with COVID-19 have posed a unique challenge for healthcare workers. The wobble room has become a place where staff can make sense of how the pandemic is affecting them and create a "new normal" with respect to personal safety and team cohesion.

Microdosing and standard-dosing take-home buprenorphine from the emergency department: A feasibility study.

OBJECTIVE: Emergency department (ED)-initiated buprenorphine may prevent overdose. Microdosing is a novel approach that does not require withdrawal, which can be a barrier to standard inductions. We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of an ED-initiated buprenorphine/naloxone program providing standard-dosing and microdosing take-home packages and of randomizing patients to either intervention. METHODS: We broadly screened patients ≥18 years old for opioid use disorder at a large, urban ED. In a first phase, we provided consecutive patients with 3-day standard-dosing packages, and then we provided a subsequent group with 6-day microdosing packages. In a second phase, we randomized patients to standard dosing or microdosing. We attempted 7-day telephone follow-ups and 30-day in-person community follow-ups. The primary feasibility outcome was number of patients enrolled and accepting randomization. Secondary outcomes were numbers screened, follow-up rates, and 30-day opioid agonist therapy retention. RESULTS: We screened 3954 ED patients and identified 94 with opioid use disorders. Of the patients, 26 (27.7%) declined participation: 10 identified a negative prior experience with buprenorphine/naloxone as the reason, 5 specifically cited precipitated withdrawal, and none cited randomization. We enrolled 68 patients. A total of 14 left the ED against medical advice, 8 were excluded post-enrollment, 21 received standard dosing, and 25 received microdosing. The 7-day and 30-day follow-up rates were 9/46 (19.6%) and 15/46 (32.6%), respectively. At least 5/21 (23.8%) provided standard dosing and 8/25 (32.0%) provided microdosing remained on opioid agonist therapy at 30 days. CONCLUSIONS: ED-initiated take-home standard-dosing and microdosing buprenorphine/naloxone programs are feasible, and a randomized controlled trial would be acceptable to our target population.