Newsletter Fall 2009

• The RNAO is leading the Nurse Peer Leader Strategy in Ontario with funding from Canada Health Infoway (Infoway)
• The Strategy facilitates education and knowledge sharing about eHealth in the nursing community so nurses from all sectors better understand eHealth and its relationship to quality care and client outcomes
• The goal is to have 20% of nurses in each LHIN access the RNAO Nursing and eHealth online course
• There are 14 Nurse Peer Leaders, each representing a LHIN in Ontario, in each ONIG newsletter an update will be included to share what is happening in your LHIN.
• The leaders act as a communications medium between nursing and various eHealth initiatives

• Increase awareness of Ontario's eHealth agenda and the significant role for nurse in the strategy;
• Identify baseline information related to the level of ICT expertise within the nursing profession by age group, sector, and roles;
• Plan and deliver specific education initiatives to build nursing's expertise in ICT's and relevant health care applications
• Identify nursing's contribution to the MOH eHealth agenda; and
• Develop nursing specific eHealth initiatives related to the role of nursing across all health care sectors. 

Curriculum Aim:

• To provide a foundational program for nurses related to eHealth to support the nursing role and quality client care.

Link to course

LHIN 1 St. Clair-Erie   Peer Leader:  Betty Oldershaw

Contacts to date

1. CNE at Chatham Kent Health Alliance
2. Presentation to the Professional Practice Group at Chatham Kent Health Alliance
3. Collaboration with LHIN eHealth Coordinator to spread the message
4. Collaboration with Local 035 Ontario Nurses Association Local Coordinator and CKHA Bargaioning Unit President
5. Initial contact with St. Clair College nursing director

Communications

1. Developing lunch and learn sessons at Chatham Kent Health Alliance
2. Presenting at next ONA membership meeting in November for Local 025
3. Presenting at Best Practice Champion workshop in Windsor in March 2010 and providing information at Best Practice Champion Workshop in Chatham in October
4. Messaging sent to Best Practice Champions in LHIN 1

LHIN 10 South East   Peer Leader:  Carol Cooke

Contacts to date

1. Nurse Educators at QHC
2. Best Practice Consultants at QHC
3. Nursing Clinical Instructors at Loyalist and St. Lawrence Colleges and Brock University
4. eHealth Champions in South East LHIN
5. Can Care Community Nurses in Belleville/Kingston
6. Public Health Nurses at Hastings and Prince Edward Health Unit

Communications

1. Article included in Quinte Health Care Newsletter about Peer 2 Peer project and my role as Peer 2 Peer Leader
2. Link to RNAO eHealth included in Quinte Health Care eLearning module as an external learning event
3. Information about eHealth included in Quinte Health Care nursing application training sessions

LHIN 9 Central East   Peer Leader: Alison MacDonald

Nurses and eHealth

 "I am very passionate about eHealth," enthused Alison MacDonald. "It has a great potential to change clinical process in a way that will improve patient care and safety. It will impact how we collect data, influence quality improvement and enhance communication between the various health care providers of each patient." 

In the role of PNL, Alison will focus on engaging nurses in a variety of eHealth capacity building initiatives. Right now, she is working to promote an on-line course which provides nurses with an overview of eHealth and the electronic health record. The course helps nurses understand the value and potential of eHealth, including telemedicine, better, prepares them for what is coming and hopefully will interest nurses in being involved in the planning, and implementation of CE LHIN eHealth projects.   The RNAO's goal is to have 20% of nurses in each LHIN take the online eHealth course. At the CE LHIN 20% translates into 2,033 nurses. 

 The course which is available for free at: http://www.rnao.org/eHealth_course/ consists of 10 modules: 

• Introduction
• Nursing, quality health care and eHealth
• Computer technology and information processing
• Information and communication technology to assist client care Ontario eHealth initiatives
• Professional issues for nurses eHealth and the nursing role Consumer eHealth
• Professional development, knowledge management and eHealth
• Conclusion: Nursing and health care strengthened through eHealth 

An additional two modules will be added to the on-line course soon. They are:

·          Nurses and nursing students in a digitally connected world

·          Nursing and electronic health records (EHR)

 

"I would love to surpass the goal of 20% and I think we can do it," said Alison. To promote the course and to help shape a CE LHIN eHealth Nurse Engagement strategy she has been introducing herself to various committees and key leaders; and delivering eHealth presentations.

 

For more information contact Alison at: macdonalda@ontarioshores.ca or 905-430-4055 ext. 6728

 

This article first appeared in the CE LHIN eHealth e-Update Newsletter Vol 7, September 2009

 

What’s Happening in the CE LHIN

CE LHIN has developed a vision to share a health information system (HIS) designed to automate administrative and clinical functions, and enable sharing of patient information.  Meditech Client/Server 6.0 will be the foundation of the HIS.  Standards Teams are defining how we code and enter data into each Meditech modules.  Ontario Shores is the first CE LHIN Hospital to implement C/S 6.0, going LIVE with the ancillary modules in late September.  Twenty six hospitals and one Community Care Access Centre from five LHINs are collaborating to create a Data Centre Consolidation (DCC) to house their applications and data.  DCC will allow hospitals to focus resources on health care delivery rather than IT, provide opportunities for future cost avoidance and information technology (IT) expansion, improve the flow of clinical information between hospitals and support and enable the development of the provincial Electronic Health Record.

A Clinical Informatics Advisory Group (CIAG), a group of Clinical Informatics, Professional Practice and other Clinical leaders from hospital across the CE LHIN has been created under the leadership of Alison Mahoney, an ONIG member who is the Clinical Informatics Lead at Peterborough Regional Health Centre.  The group makes recommendations and reports to CE LHIN VP/CNE group.  CIAG provides a clinically relevant perspective and guidance for decison making related to clinical technology implementations. Nursing is being heard in the CE LHIN!!

CIAG recently developed and submitted "CE LHIN Guidelines for Clinical Documentation: Vision and Guiding Principles" which was approved by the VP/CE Group and is now providing a foundation for future efforts related to standardizing clinical documentation.

 

For more information contact Lynn Tkac at ltkac@rougevalley.ca