Case studies
Social Movement Action Framework
Promoting healthy public policy through mobilized collective actions
Queen’s Park on the Road and Queen’s Park Day are two events in which RNAO members meet with members of provincial parliament (MPPs) from all of the political parties to promote healthy public policy and nursing services. through individual and collective actions. Learn more in this case study.
Through two annual initiatives – Queen’s Park on the Road and Queen’s Park Day – RNAO members meet with members of provincial parliament (MPPs) from all of the political parties to promote healthy public policy and nursing services. Through direct engagement and advocacy with MPPs, RNAO has mobilized collective action for policy initiatives addressing areas such as poverty reduction, the use of pesticides for cosmetic use, promoting refugee health and protecting the safety and security of residents in long-term care (Grinspun et al., 2018a).
Mobilizing community engagement to sustain a childhood obesity prevention initiative
Multiple communities mobilized to sustain a childhood obesity prevention program through targeted individual and collective action. Read more in this case study.
A community initiative called Sustainable Childhood Obesity Prevention through Community Engagement (SCOPE) provides an example of collective action in the context of public health.
In the SCOPE public health initiative, the community formed a coalition with local partners such as libraries and primary care offices to take collective action for the prevention of childhood obesity. Together, they participated in a range of collective action activities, including: presentations and events promoting healthy eating choices, stakeholder engagement, resource development and policy and practice change (Kennedy et al., 2019a).
Building a global collective identity to advance knowledge uptake and sustainability - the RNAO Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) Program
RNAO's Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) program has integrated a collective identity of knowledge champions to advance evidence uptake and sustainability.
The Best Practice Spotlight Organization® (BPSO®) Program (https://rnao.ca/bpg/bpso) has global reach and impact that is sustained by many factors, including the development of collective identity that promotes an evidence-based culture. The BPSO logo, as a tangible representation of a collective identity, is displayed in individual sites to indicate they are BPSO units. This visibility motivates and inspires nurses and other staff to use best practice guidelines (BPG) to support the health and well-being of staff, patients/persons and their families. Participation and membership in the international BPSO network further the ties and pride of BPSO and builds the collective identity (Grinspun & Bajnok, 2018).
Within organizations, individual BPSOs nurture Best Practice (BP) Champions (https://rnao.ca/bpg/get-involved/champions) who take on leadership roles to support the planning, implementation, evaluation and sustainability of BPGs. Nurses and other staff members develop a collective identity based on a culture of integrating evidence-based practice to achieve excellence in care. The visibility of BP Champions is seen when staff where BPSO-branded clothing items, and pins that are awarded at the completion of the Best Practice Champions’ training workshop (see the examples below of social media posts of BPSO-branded t-shirts and a pinning ceremony of new champions by RNAO CEO, Dr. Doris Grinspun) (Grinspun & Bajnok, 2018). |
Knowledge-to-Action Framework
Adapting BPG recommendations to a public health context – Insights from Toronto Public Health
Toronto Public Health – a Best Practice Spotlight Organization® (BPSO®) - has adapted several RNAO best practice guidelines (BPGs) to align with a population health approach.
Toronto Public Health – a Best Practice Spotlight Organization® (BPSO®) in Toronto, Canada – has implemented several RNAO best practice guidelines (BPGs), including Woman Abuse: Screening, Identification and Initial Response (2005) and Preventing and Addressing Abuse and Neglect of Older Adults (2014). Because some practice recommendations in these guidelines focus on the individual person or patient level, they didn’t always align with Toronto Public Health’s population health approach.
To adapt recommendations to the public health context, the change team completed a literature review to explore definitions and adapt strategies to align with the model of care delivery and health promotion philosophy.
Another approach that was taken by Toronto Public Health: piloting BPG recommendations within one small program team. The team would then evaluate the implementation until successful, consistent with the Plan-Do-Study-Act approach). Once successful, the intervention was scaled up within the organization to other programs and teams (Timmings et al., 2018).
Adapting BPG recommendations to a Chinese acute care context to reform care delivery– lessons learned from DongZhiMen Hospital
Care practices were revised using adapted evidence-based best practice guidelines in an acute care facility in Beijing, China.
DongZhiMen Hospital – a BPSO in Beijing China – was motivated to reform care delivery through the use of RNAO BPGs. While best practice recommendations provided general guidance, DongZhimen Hospital identified the need to translate these statements into detailed instructions and parameters tailored to their specific hospital context.
To adapt statements to their context, they translated the guideline into Chinese. A multidisciplinary team then worked through the initial steps of the Knowledge-to-Action Framework. This involved:
- reviewing carefully the evidence to thoroughly understand the intent of the recommendations
- conducting a comprehensive gap analysis
- interviewing staff members and others to identify facilitators and barriers to the use of the BPG.
Using this information, the team was able to create specific, clinical nursing practice standards derived from the recommendations and relevant to their context (Hailing and Runxi, 2018).
Facilitating an evidence-based culture at Unity Health Toronto - St. Michael’s Hospital
Unity Health Toronto - St. Michael’s Hospital, a Best Practice Spotlight Organization® (BPSO®) has embedded evidence-based practices into its culture and daily work processes as part of its corporate strategy.
Unity Health Toronto - St. Michael’s Hospital, a Best Practice Spotlight Organization® (BPSO®) in Toronto, Canada, has embedded evidence-based practices into its culture and daily work processes. Evidence-based practice is part of the hospital’s corporate strategy. It has invested resources to build a critical mass (over 30 per cent) of staff members who are best practice champions.
The hospital also provides multiple capacity-building opportunities, including a community of practice, boot camps, booster sessions and mentorship. The annual Nursing Week Gallery Walk, depicted in the image above, is just one way that St. Michael’s Hospital profiles the work of champions and others dedicated to using evidence to inform change initiatives.
SOURCE: Transforming Nursing Through Knowledge, 2018.
Engaging Persons with Lived Experiences
Integrating patient partners in change – Lessons learned from Kidney Health Australia
Kidnney Health Australia case study
In early 2018, Kidney Health Australia (KHA) developed a guideline for managing percutaneous renal biopsies for individuals with chronic kidney disease (Scholes-Robertson et al., 2019). KHA included 40 persons from across Australia with lived experience of chronic kidney disease and their caregivers – “patient partners”. KHA asked patient partners to prioritize which topics were most important to them during a percutaneous renal biopsy.
Patient partners valued: minimizing discomfort and disruption, protecting their kidneys, enabling self-management, and making sure that support for families and caregivers would be available. They indicated that all of this would help alleviate anxiety and avoid undue stress. Their voices were heard, and KHA effectively incorporated these suggestions in guideline development.
Notably, there were marked differences between the priorities identified by the content experts on the guideline development working group, versus what the patient partners perceived to be important to their health and wellbeing, as shown in the table below.
Topics prioritized by content experts |
Topics prioritized by patient partners |
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