Opioid deprescribing in long-term care in Ontario: A comparison of resident and facility characteristics.

Residents of long-term care (LTC) homes have potentially painful conditions and are prescribed opioids to manage their pain, despite the risks associated with the use of these high-risk medications. Therefore, the overall aim of this study was to describe the associations between resident and facility characteristics of residents prescribed long-term opioid therapy and those who remained on opioids or had opioids deprescribed. We conducted a retrospective cohort study utilizing health administrative databases housed within ICES. Our cohort included 26,592 of 121,564 LTC residents (21.9%) of Ontario LTC homes who were prescribed long-term opioid therapy at cohort inception. Of these residents, 4,299 (16.2%) residents had opioids deprescribed during the follow-up period. Opioid deprescribing was associated with younger age, high comorbidity, and co-prescription with benzodiazepines and gabapentinoids. Our findings suggest that there is variation in the characteristics of residents who continued long-term opioid therapy and those who subsequently had opioids deprescribed, and these characteristics need to be considered as part of individualized pain management plans of care.

New Nurses' Perceptions on Transition to Practice: A Thematic Analysis.

BACKGROUND: New nurses' transition to the workforce is often described as challenging and stressful. Concerns over this transition to practice are well documented, with the hypothesis that transition experiences influence the retention of new nurses in the workforce and profession. METHODS: In a cross-sectional survey (N = 217) to assess new nurse transition in the province of Ontario, Canada, an open-ended item was included to solicit specific examples of the transition experience. The comments underwent thematic analysis to identify the facilitators and barriers of transition to practice for new nurses. RESULTS: Comments were provided by 196 respondents. Three facilitator themes (supportive teams; feeling accepted, confident, and prepared; new graduate guarantee) and four barrier themes (feeling unprepared; discouraging realities and unsupportive cultures; lacking confidence/feeling unsure; false hope) to new nurse transition emerged. CONCLUSIONS: Concerns of nursing shortages are heightened in the current COVID-19 pandemic, reinforcing the priority of retaining new nurses in the workforce. The reported themes offer insight into the contribution of a supportive work environment to new nurses' transition. The recommendations focus on aspects of supportive environments and educational strategies, including final practicums, to assist nursing students' development of self-efficacy and preparation for the workplace.

Understanding organ donation processes and structures in ontario: A social network analysis approach.

BACKGROUND: Transplant rates in Ontario rose steeply in the decade prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reasons for that increase remain unclear, but the inter-organizational arrangement of organ donation programs may have contributed. However, there is a paucity of literature investigating these inter-organizational arrangements, with a limited understanding of how communication facilitates organ donation. Understanding these arrangements may help to re-establish rising organ donation rates post-pandemic. OBJECTIVE: To describe interprofessional interactions of Organ and Tissue Donation Coordinators (OTDCs) during organ donation cases, within organ donation programs in Ontario, from an organizational perspective (describing structure, context, process). METHODS: Mixed-method social network analysis (SNA) approach analyzing 14 organ donation cases just before the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Structure: Social network graphs depict the joint work performed by hospital staff and OTDCs, with a great part of the communication being processed through the OTDC. CONTEXT: Network density ranged from 0.05 to 0.24 across cases, and health care professionals perceived an atmosphere of shared vision and trust among team members. PROCESS: Most networks had a degree centralization <0.50 suggesting a decentralized information flow, and participants perceived decisions being jointly made. The characteristic path length of cases ranged from 1.6 to 3.2, suggesting potential for rapid information diffusion. Overall, data reinforced the OTDC role of intermediator within the communication process, and hospital staff perceived OTDCs as central players. Hospital staff and OTDCs reported frustration with some aspects of the flow of information during the organ allocation processes. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study provide a network map of communications within organ donation cases and reinforce the importance of the OTDC role. Opportunities for quality improvement within these processes are identified.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: A Key to Nurse Retention.

In Canada, nurses have known about the chronic shortage of nurses for years; the pandemic has just opened the floodgates. For the authors, the current nursing crisis and the accompanying response have led to flashbacks of the early 2000s, when extensive advocacy work took place to prevent a looming nursing crisis. In the key reports reviewed in this paper, the statement "lack of respect for nursing" has echoed over and over and over again and continues to be heard today throughout social media. Based on nurses' voices, meaningful respect starts with nurse leaders and administrators recognizing nurses' education, knowledge, values and experience; seeking and listening to nurses' voices and input on decisions affecting nursing; and striving for quality practice environments with reasonable workloads, adequate supplies and resources. While long-term planning must take place to correct this, there is no easy fix and no single strategy to turn the situation around quickly. Short-term strategies to relieve nurses' feelings of disrespect are a good place to start to retain nurses and stop the bleeding. It is time to work with all the nurses to find ground-level strategies to assure a sustainable and healthy nursing workforce for today and tomorrow. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the meaning of respect both generally and from the nurses' perspective using the literature from the past 20 years. The authors then outline several implications for nurse leaders and administrators that are relevant today.

Measuring Scope of Practice Enactment Among Primary Care Registered Nurses.

BACKGROUND: Scope of practice enactment is poorly understood in the primary care setting. PURPOSE: The following research objectives were addressed: (1) to revise and adapt the Actual Scope of Practice (ASCOP) questionnaire for use in the primary care setting, and (2) to determine internal consistency, construct validity, and sensitivity of the modified instrument. METHODS: To address the first objective, a narrative literature review and synthesis and an expert panel review was conducted. To address the second objective, a cross-sectional survey of 178 registered nurses who worked in primary care was conducted. RESULTS: The ASCOP, with few modifications, addressed key attributes of nursing scope of practice in the primary care setting. The modified instrument yielded acceptable alpha coefficients ranging from 0.66 to 0.91. Total mean score of 4.8 (SD = .67) suggests that registered nurses within interprofessional primary care teams almost always engage in activities reflected in the modified instrument. CONCLUSIONS: The modified instrument is the first instrument validated to measure nursing scope of practice enactment in the primary care setting. Findings from this study support the use of the modified ASCOP questionnaire as a reliable and valid measure of scope of practice enactment among primary care registered nurses.

Acknowledging the Hidden Tsunami.

It is time to acknowledge what has been hidden inside Canada's healthcare system for decades but has become more visible during the COVID-19 pandemic: widespread stress, mental health problems and burnout in the nursing workforce. For the past 20+ years, repeated concerns about the mental health of nurses in Canada have been raised within many national reports, yet the rates have continued to rise.

Introduction: Creating Effective Ways to Support Nurses' Mental Health during COVID-19.

Unprecedented is one of the words that has been most frequently heard during the COVID-19 pandemic. We read daily about the ongoing challenges nurses and nurse leaders face in ways that one could not have imagined 15 months ago. With each wave of rising COVID-19 cases, we are reminded of the toll that this pandemic is having on nurses. Nurse leaders have described being scared of failing and not being able to guide or support their staff through the pandemic while recognizing the need to be a strong leader, resilient and adaptable to change every single day (Lapum et al. 2021). The uncertainty and complexity have been overwhelming, and throughout this crisis, nurse leaders have been continually asked to reach into their leadership toolboxes to find ways to support nurses within contexts that have rapidly changed over and over again.

COVID-19-Related Occupational Burnout and Moral Distress among Nurses: A Rapid Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic is placing unprecedented pressure on a nursing workforce that is already under considerable mental strain due to an overloaded system. Convergent evidence from the current and previous pandemics indicates that nurses experience the highest levels of psychological distress compared with other health professionals. Nurse leaders face particular challenges in mitigating risk and supporting nursing staff to negotiate moral distress and fatigue during large-scale, sustained crises. Synthesizing the burgeoning literature on COVID-19-related burnout and moral distress faced by nurses and identifying effective interventions to reduce poor mental health outcomes will enable nurse leaders to support the resilience of their teams. AIM: This paper aims to (1) synthesize existing literature on COVID-19-related burnout and moral distress among nurses and (2) identify recommendations for nurse leaders to support the psychological needs of nursing staff. METHODS: Comprehensive searches were conducted in Medline, Embase and PsycINFO (via Ovid); CINAHL (via EBSCOHost); and ERIC (via ProQUEST). The rapid review was completed in accordance with the World Health Organization Rapid Review Guide. KEY FINDINGS: Thematic analysis of selected studies suggests that nurses are at an increased risk for stress, burnout and depression during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Younger female nurses with less clinical experience are more vulnerable to adverse mental health outcomes.

Defining Quality Criteria for Success in Organ Donation Programs: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Well-established performance measures for organ donation programs do not fully address the complexity and multifactorial nature of organ donation programs such as the influence of relationships and organizational attributes. OBJECTIVE: To synthesize the current evidence on key organizational attributes and processes of international organ donation programs associated with successful outcomes and to generate a framework to categorize those attributes. DESIGN: Scoping Review using a mixed methods approach for data extraction. SETTING: Databases included PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, LILACS, ABI Business ProQuest, Business Source Premier, and gray literature (organ donation association websites, Google Scholar-first 8 pages), and searches for gray literature were performed, and relevant websites were perused. SAMPLE: Organ donation programs or processes. METHODS: We systematically searched the literature to identify any research design, including text and opinion papers and unpublished material (research data, reports, institutional protocols, government documents, etc). Searches were completed on January 2018, updated it in May 2019, and lastly in March 2020. Title, abstracts, and full texts were screened independently by 2 reviewers with disagreements resolved by a third. Data extraction followed a mixed method approach in which we extracted specific details about study characteristics such as type of research, year of publication, origin/country of study, type of journal published, and key findings. Studies included considered definitions and descriptions of success in organ donation programs in any country by considering studies that described (1) attributes associated with success or effectiveness, (2) organ donation processes, (3) quality improvement initiatives, (4) definitions of organ donation program effectiveness, (5) evidence-based practices in organ donation, and (6) improvements or success in such programs. We tabulated the type and frequency of the presence or absence of reported improvement quality indicators and used a qualitative thematic analysis approach to synthesize results. RESULTS: A total of 84 articles were included. Quantitative analysis identified that most of the included articles originated from the United States (n = 32, 38%), used quantitative approaches (n = 46, 55%), and were published in transplant journals (n = 34, 40.5%). Qualitative analysis revealed 16 categories that were described as positively influencing success/effectiveness of organ donation programs. Our thematic analysis identified 16 attributes across the 84 articles, which were grouped into 3 categories influencing organ donation programs' success: context (n = 39, 46%), process (n = 48, 57%), and structural (n = 59, 70%). LIMITATIONS: Consistent with scoping review methodology, the methodological quality of included studies was not assessed. CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review identified a number of factors that led to successful outcomes. However, those factors were rarely studied in combination representing a gap in the literature. Therefore, we suggest the development and reporting of primary research investigating and measuring those attributes associated with the performance of organ donation programs holistically. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not applicable.

CONTEXTE: Les mesures de rendement bien établies pour les programmes de dons d'organes ne tiennent pas entièrement compte de la complexité et de la nature multifactorielle de ces programmes, notamment de l'influence des relations et des attributs organisationnels. OBJECTIF: Synthétiser les données actuelles sur les processus et les principaux attributs organisationnels des programmes internationaux de dons d'organes qui sont associés à des résultats favorables, et générer un cadre pour classer ces attributs. TYPE D'ÉTUDE: Examen de la portée où une approche à méthodes mixtes a servi à l'extraction des données. SOURCES: Ont été consultées les bases de données PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, LILAS, ABI Business ProQuest et Business Source Premier, ainsi que la littérature grise (huit premières pages de Google Scholar) et les sites Web pertinents (sites Web d'associations de dons d'organes). ÉCHANTILLON: Les programmes ou processus de don d'organes. MÉTHODOLOGIE: Nous avons procédé à une recherche systématique de la documentation pour répertorier tout plan de recherche pertinent, y compris les manuscrits, articles d'opinion et documents non publiés (données de recherche, rapports, protocoles institutionnels, documents gouvernementaux, etc.). Les recherches se sont terminées en janvier 2018 et ont été mises à jour en mai 2019 et en mars 2020. Les titres, les abrégés et les textes complets ont été révisés de façon indépendante par deux examinateurs; les désaccords ayant été résolus par un troisième. Une combinaison de méthodes a été employée pour l'extraction des données, lesquelles incluaient notamment des détails concernant l'étude (type de recherche, année de publication, pays/origine de l'étude, type de publication, principales conclusions). Les études retenues définissaient et donnaient une description du succès des programmes de dons d'organes dans tout pays; l'examen s'est concentré sur les études décrivant: 1) les attributs associés au succès ou à l'efficacité; 2) les processus de don d'organes; 3) les initiatives d'amélioration de la qualité; 4) les définitions de l'efficacité du programme; 5) les pratiques fondées sur des données probantes, et; 6) les améliorations ou le succès des programmes. Pour chaque amélioration mentionnée, le type et la fréquence de la présence ou de l'absence d'indicateurs de la qualité ont été colligés pour chaque amélioration mentionnée, et une méthode d'analyse thématique qualitative a servi à synthétiser les résultats. RÉSULTATS: En tout, 84 articles ont été inclus. L'analyse quantitative a révélé qu'en majorité, les articles provenaient des États-Unis (n=32 [38 %]), qu'ils utilisaient des approches quantitatives (n=46 [55 %]) et qu'ils avaient été publiés dans des revues de transplantation (n=34 [40,5 %]). L'analyse qualitative a dégagé 16 catégories décrites comme ayant une influence positive sur le succès et l'efficacité des programmes de dons d'organes, alors que l'analyse thématique a permis de répertorier 16 attributs. Ces derniers ont été classés dans trois catégories influençant le succès des programmes de dons d'organes: le contexte (n=39 [46 %]), le processus (n=48 [57 %]) et la structure (n=59 [70 %]). LIMITES: Conformément à la méthodologie d'un examen de la portée, la qualité méthodologique des études incluses n'a pas été évaluée. CONCLUSION: Cet examen de la portée a permis de dégager un certain nombre de facteurs menant à des résultats favorables; ceux-ci ont cependant rarement été étudiés en combinaison, ce qui constitue une lacune dans la littérature. Dès lors, nous suggérons l'élaboration et la présentation de rapports de recherche visant à étudier et à mesurer les attributs associés au rendement des programmes de dons d'organes de façon holistique.

In Pursuit of a More Unified Nursing Voice.

While nursing is a profession built on collaborative relationships, a lack of unity and historically disparate power structures have become entrenched within the profession during our long history. We are still having many of the same conversations today about the state of the profession as we were 30 years ago. If we want nurses graduating today to enjoy vibrant careers that will see them holding different sorts of conversations about the profession in 2040, then a blueprint for action to optimize intraprofessional practice is required. This paper provides an overview of a recent pan-Canadian report, paints a picture of the current landscape of nursing in Canada and outlines several key strategies to begin transforming intraprofessional practice.

Physiotherapy: an active, transformational, and authentic career choice.

Background: This paper arises from a larger study exploring early professional socialization across five professions: physiotherapy, nursing; dentistry; pharmacy; and medicine. Purpose: To explore the process of physiotherapy student professional identity development and the evolution of expectations and views of interprofessional practice in the first year of their program. Methods: One-on-one interviews at three time points: after being accepted into the physiotherapy program and before classes began (T1; n = 12); after term one (T2; n=9) and on completion of year one (T3; n = 7). Analyses employed narrative methodology, guided by anticipatory socialization and professional identity theories. Results: At T1, participants described their path towards physiotherapy, indicating career satisfaction as the core of their choice. Expectations of practice aligned with the normative social positioning of the profession. T2 and T3 interviews revealed that their pre-entry conceptualization of practice was both challenged and positively reinforced, leading them either to being satisfied with, or questioning their choice. Clinical placements created the most meaningful opportunities to understand their roles both as individual professionals and members of a collaborative team. Conclusion: Findings revealed the complex process of professional socialization in physiotherapy students with implications for admissions and formal and IPE curricula.

Pre-entry perceptions of students entering five health professions: implications for interprofessional education and collaboration.

Dysfunctional interprofessional teams are a threat to health system performance and the delivery of quality patient outcomes. Implementing strategies that prepare future health professionals to be effective collaborators requires a comprehensive understanding of how early professional socialization and professional identity formation occur. We present findings from a qualitative study, grounded in narrative methodology, examining early professional socialization among students across five health professional programs (dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy) in the first year of health professional training. Between April and September 2015, students (n = 49) entering programs at an Atlantic Canadian University participated in one-on-one, audiotaped interviews starting before formal program orientation. Pre-entry interviews focused on factors influencing students' career choice and expectations of future profession and interprofessional collaboration (IPC). Findings revealed that many different experiences influenced participants' career choice and framed the social positioning of their future career (e.g., leadership, prestige, autonomy). Participant narratives revealed the existence of stereotypes pertaining to their chosen and other health professions. Study findings provided insights that may help strengthen initiatives to promote positive professional identity formation within the context of IPC. Implications of this research highlight the need for the early introduction of IPC including pre-entry recruitment messaging for prospective health professionals.

New Registered Nurse Transition to the Workforce and Intention to Leave: Testing a Theoretical Model.

BACKGROUND: The transition of new nurses into practice has been identified as challenging, and new nurses report having intentions to leave (ITL) jobs. Concerns of ITL are worrisome for the nursing profession, especially when faced with the need to replace an aging nursing workforce and to maintain quality patient care. PURPOSE: Guided by components of Meleis et al.'s mid-range transition theory, the purpose of this study was to test a theoretical model linking transition and ITL, as well as the personal, community and societal conditions of transition. METHODS: A predictive, non-experimental design using cross-sectional data was employed. Ontario registered nurses, who had graduated within two years, were randomly selected to complete a mailed questionnaire in 2015 (N = 217). Structural equation modeling was undertaken to test the model. RESULTS: The new nurses reported a relatively positive transition; yet, 44% of the respondents indicated leaving their first job, and 1% departed the nursing profession. A revised model of the constructs showed a more adequate fit with the data, but overall, the hypothesized model was not supported and methodological validity of tools questioned. From the modeling, lower role stress led to a positive transition. CONCLUSIONS: Given organizational and governmental investments in orientation and transition programs, challenges in measuring transition and ITL requires additional research. Our findings highlight the value of organizations supporting new nurses by reducing role stress through reasonable workloads and expectations, which in turn contributes to a positive transition.

A longitudinal, narrative study of professional socialisation among health students.

PURPOSE: Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) among health professionals is well-recognised to enhance care delivery and patient outcomes. Emerging evidence suggests that the early socialisation of students in health professional programmes to teamwork may have a positive impact on their future as collaborative practitioners. With a purpose of contributing to growing evidence on the processes of professional identity construction, and to explore how early expectations and perceptions of IPC develop during professional socialisation and pre-licensure education, our study examined the early professional socialisation experiences among five groups of health professional students. METHOD: A qualitative, narrative approach was used to examine early professional socialisation among five programmes of health professional students (dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy) at an Atlantic Canadian University. In March and October 2016, students participated in interviews after first term (n = 44) and first year of study (n = 39). Interviews focused on participants' professional identify formation, as well as their perceptions and experiences of IPC. The authors analysed interview transcripts using narrative analysis. RESULTS: Findings identify that despite the espoused importance of IPC within health professional training, students have a limited understanding of their professional roles and are largely focused on developing a uniprofessional, vs. interprofessional identity. Clinical experiences, role models and exposure to teamwork are critical to contextualise collaborative practice and enhance the development of an interprofessional identity. CONCLUSIONS: Findings can be used to guide the development of curricula that promote interprofessional identity development and IPC during early professional socialisation.

Burnout and compassion fatigue among organ and tissue donation coordinators: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVES: To collate and synthesise available literature on burnout and compassion fatigue (CF) among organ and tissue donation coordinators (OTDCs) and to respond to the research question: what is known about burnout and CF among OTDCs worldwide? DESIGN: Scoping review using Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. DATA SOURCES: Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, LILACS, PTSpubs and grey literature (ResearchGate, OpenGrey, Organ Donation Organization (ODO) websites, open access theses and dissertations) up to April 2020. STUDY SELECTION: Studies reporting aspects of burnout and CF among OTDCs, including risk and protective factors. DATA EXTRACTION: Two reviewers independently screened the studies for eligibility and extracted data from chosen sources using a data extraction tool developed for this study; NVIVO was used to perform a qualitative directed content analysis. RESULTS: The searches yielded 741 potentially relevant records, of which 29 met the inclusion criteria. The majority of articles were from the USA (n=7, 24%), Canada (n=6, 21%) and Brazil (n=6, 21%), published between 2013 and 2020 (n=13, 45%) in transplant journals (n=11, 38%) and used a qualitative design approach (n=12, 41%). In the thematic analysis, we classified the articles into five categories: (1) burnout characteristics, (2) CF characteristics, (3) coping strategies, (4) protective factors and (5) ambivalence. CONCLUSION: We identified aspects of burnout and CF among OTDCs, including defining characteristics, demographic predispositions, protective factors, coping strategies, precursors, consequences and personal ambivalences. Researchers described burnout and CF characteristics but did not use consistent terms when referring to CF and burnout, which may have hindered the identification of all relevant sources. This gap should be addressed by the application of consistent terminology, systematic approaches and appropriate research methods that combine quantitative and qualitative investigation to examine the underlying reasons for the development of burnout and CF among OTDCs.

The Impact of COVID-19 within Academic Settings: A High-Speed Pivot.

In a high-speed pivot never seen before in post-secondary education in Canada, the COVID-19 pandemic upended every facet of academia. Almost overnight the system transitioned to remote teaching, empty campuses and research stoppages. Nursing school administrators were asked to make hundreds of decisions daily to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff while maintaining education standards. Several months into the pandemic, circumstances are still far from normal as we continue to expect the unexpected and prepare to be nimble agents of change in the months ahead. This commentary outlines my observations as a faculty member during the past few months.

Burnout and compassion fatigue among organ donation coordinators: a scoping review protocol.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to develop a comprehensive description of burnout and compassion fatigue, including risk/protective factors, among organ and tissue donation coordinators worldwide. INTRODUCTION: Research on turnover rates among organ and tissue donation coordinators has shown that job tenure generally lasts less than three years, a possible consequence of burnout and compassion fatigue. Increased turnover rates of organ and tissue donation coordinators have significant impact on the ability of ODOs to optimize organ donation. This current scoping review will help inform understanding of the nature of burnout and compassion fatigue in this population as well as the available strategies for managing it. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Articles examining health care professionals working as organ and tissue donation coordinators, with the main concepts of interest being burnout and/or compassion fatigue, will be considered. Articles within the context of organ and tissue donation coordinators in acute care settings at any part of the organ donation process will also be considered for inclusion in this review. Quantitative and qualitative studies, text and opinion papers, unpublished material (eg, unpublished research data, reports, institutional protocols, government documents) provided by researchers in the organ donation field worldwide will also be examined for possible inclusion. METHODS: The scoping review will be performed in accordance with JBI methodology. Published and unpublished papers from 1980 to the present will be searched. Databases will include MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL, Embase, LILACS, PsycINFO, and PTSDpubs, while appropriate gray literature will be searched. Two reviewers will screen the papers according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, extract data for specific variables, and perform descriptive examination.

Building Research Capacity in Nursing Academia in 2020: Is the Road Less Perilous?

BACKGROUND: Building research capacity in nursing academic units continues to be a challenge. There are a number of external contextual factors and internal factors that influence individual faculty as well as the collective to engage successfully in research. PURPOSE: The overall aim of this opinion article is to provide an overview of the current external and internal, processes and structures, relevant to capacity of nursing faculty to engage in research. METHODS: To inform the external context, we reviewed national research funding trends for nursing. To inform the internal context, we provided an exemplar of the internal processes and structures designed to support research capacity building within our academic unit. RESULTS: Canadian Institutes of Health Research funding trends for research grants led by nurse principal applicants increased between 2010 and 2013, followed by a steady decline. In 2017 to 2018, there were only 24 research grants led by nurse principal applicants. These external challenges coupled with the traditional internal barriers, such as the imbalance between teaching and research time, threaten research capacity for nursing academics. CONCLUSION: Organizational strategies to promote research capacity within academic nursing units are a necessary requirement to move forward.

The Role of Nursing Leadership in Ensuring a Healthy Workforce in Corrections.

In Canada, responsibility for corrections is divided between federal, provincial and territorial governments, with nurses being the largest group of healthcare professionals working in correctional institutions (penitentiaries, jails, prisons, correctional centres and secure correctional treatment centres) across the country. Correctional institutions are among the most challenging workplace settings for nurses, as they face competing tensions between the provision of quality care and strict security requirements for safety. They also experience unique workforce issues with high reports of burnout and emotional exhaustion. Nursing leadership at all levels of the correctional system is critical in creating work environments that optimize workplace well-being and minimize burnout. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of nursing leadership in facilitating and enabling a healthy workforce in corrections. Minimal research has examined leadership and healthy work environments in correctional institutions. Several authors have, however, discussed transformational leadership as a strategy to positively influence correctional nursing practice. In this article, we expand on this previous work to describe the full range leadership model and how it can be used to form the foundation of effective leadership and support the creation of healthy work environments in the correctional context.

Leading Indicators in Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems in Healthcare: A Quasi-Experimental Longitudinal Study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility of implementing interventions guided by six leading indicators, and the effectiveness of these interventions on improving employee's perception of their organization's health and safety climate. METHOD: A quasi-experimental longitudinal design was used in two hospitals. Occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) were assessed using the Leading Indicator Assessment Tool. To address the gaps identified in the assessment, tailored interventions were developed, pilot tested, and evaluated. Data were collected pre- and post-interventions. RESULTS: Interventions were developed to improve three leading indicators: senior management commitment, employee involvement, and communication. Overall, both sites supported using leading indicators to guide proactive interventions. Employees' perceptions of the health and safety climate improved at one site only. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest the utilization of leading indicators to assess an organization's current OHSMS, identify areas for improvement, and implement tailored interventions is feasible to support a culture of safety in healthcare.