Authors: A. Baumann, M. Pitters, & M.Crea-Arsenio
Summary:
This toolkit is the result of a collaboration between the Nursing Health Services Research Unit (NHSRU) at McMaster University and four Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs): Central West, Hamilton-Niagara-Haldimand-Brant, South East, and South West. This partnership was formed to address the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s (MOHLTC) priority theme of a “70% Full-Time Commitment” to nurse employment (RN, RPN and NP) in the province of Ontario. In examining this commitment within the context of the four participating LHINs, two documents have been produced for each LHIN. The first is a LHIN specific report entitled: A Made-in-LHIN Solution: Identifying Local Needs in 70% Full Time Nurse Employment (Baumann, Crea, Idriss, Hunsberger & Blythe, 2009); and the second is this toolkit. The report describes the results of a research study conducted by the NHSRU that examined nurse employment across the four participating LHINs. It provides evidence of the fluctuating stability of nursing employment over the last two decades and identifies a series of focused strategies to achieve 70% full-time health workforce alliance. The NHSRU at McMaster University and the LHINs, hosted a workshop for the participating LHINs, entitled: 70% Full-time Nursing LHIN Engagement Initiative Workshop. The goals of the session were to:
• present an update and report on the NHSRU’s activities on this initiative;
• exchange innovative approaches to increasing the ratio of full-time nurses, while addressing local needs;
• increase leadership capacity to implement resources; and,
• develop a sustainable network of contacts across LHINs for exchanging ideas and strategies for increasing the ratio of full-time nurses.
Nurse stakeholders from across the four LHINs were invited to attend. The format of the workshop included roundtable discussions regarding eight targeted strategies to advance and sustain full-time nurse employment. The strategies presented at the workshop emerged from interviews with nurse employers across sectors (acute care, long-term care and community) and geographical context (rural and urban). Participants were asked to share their experiences in using the different strategies based on enablers and barriers to implementation.
This toolkit reflects the results of these discussions and presents the eight strategies in a format that can be used to assist organizations in increasing full-time employment of their nurses. The toolkit was generated directly from the participation of nurse employers and their terms and language is used throughout the text. An emergent design based on Participatory Action Research (PAR) principles was used to demonstrate the practical experience of employers.