Developing and testing a nursing home end -of -life care chart audit tool.

Background: Nursing home (NH) administrators need tools to measure the effectiveness of care delivered at the end of life so that they have objective data on which to evaluate current practices, and identify areas of resident care in need of improvement.

Methods: A three-phase mixed methods study was used to develop and test an empirically derived chart audit tool aimed at assessing the care delivered along the entire dying trajectory.

Results: The Auditing Care at the End of Life (ACE) instrument contains 27 questions captured across 6 domains, which are indicative of quality end-of-life care for nursing home residents.

Every team needs a coach: Training for interprofessional clinical placements.

Despite growing awareness of the benefits of interprofessional education and interprofessional collaboration (IPC), understanding how teams successfully transition to IPC is limited. Student exposure to interprofessional teams fosters the learners' integration and application of classroom-based interprofessional theory to practice. A further benefit might be reinforcing the value of IPC to members of the mentoring team and strengthening their IPC.

Advancing Interprofessional Collaborative Teams in the Winnipeg Health Region.

This project developed an evaluation platform aimed at diagnosing team functioning using evidence-informed, measurable indicators to provide an actionable roadmap to guide teams in improving their interprofessional collaborative team performance. A scoping literature review, stakeholder consultation, survey and focus groups were conducted to inform both the final selection of eight indicators of effective, high-performing teams and the process to assess and evaluate teams against these indicators. The program was piloted with two interprofessional teams in the Winnipeg Health Region.

From primary nurse to collaborative nursing care team: Early feedback on a new model.

This article discusses key findings from a preliminary review of a nursing care delivery model implemented in Winnipeg, Manitoba, by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Home Care Program in 2014. Results suggest that the model is generally seen positively by staff but challenging to implement, given established administrative practices. To meet future demands on the healthcare system, home care programs need policies and procedures that empower nurses to perform as true community health nurses.

Setting a new standard of care in nursing homes.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority's introduction of a full-time nurse practitioner in a 116-bed non-profit nursing home provided an opportunity to explore a collaborative relationship between an NP acting as the primary care provider and a single physician serving as the consultant for complex care and after-hours care. The outcomes were measured in terms of resident and family satisfaction, quality of care indicators and cost effectiveness. Data were collected from pre-existing quality indicators, including a resident/family satisfaction survey, transfers to acute care, and medication use statistics.

"Caring as if it were my family": health care aides' perspectives about expert care of the dying resident in a personal care home.

Objective: A qualitative pilot study was conducted to identify and describe expert behaviors in care of the dying resident in a personal care home setting from the perspective of health care aides (N = 5) nominated by their peers as demonstrating excellence in end-of-life care.

Methods: Data was collected through audio-taped semi-structured interview, and transcribed verbatim using constant-comparative analysis procedures.

Results: The over-arching theme emerging from the data was "caring as if it were my family.