Message from Nova Scotia Health President and CEO, Karen Oldfield |
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Dear colleagues in health,
The season of renewal and rebirth is here! As a collective, we've made it through the dark months and I hope you share my sense of optimism and renewed focus that comes with this time of year. Teams across Nova Scotia Health have made tremendous progress over the winter months and the pace continues to accelerate as we work to increase access to better quality health care.
At the end of March, government released its 2023/24 budget that featured further investments in health care. I encourage you to read more. These investments support Action for Health and our combined efforts to provide Nova Scotians with the ready, responsive, reliable care they deserve.
It has been another busy month for the improvement of health care in our province that again features the launch of first-of-its-kind initiatives in Atlantic Canada. It is always a pleasure for me to share our advancements with you - working in partnership, we're on the precipice of great things in Nova Scotia!
Until next month,
Karen
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New care clinic for Nova Scotians experiencing homelessness
On Friday, April 21, the province announced a first-of-its-kind clinic in Atlantic Canada to help reduce visits to emergency departments and walk-in clinics by people experiencing homelessness.
The unique clinic is a collaborative effort across the departments of Health and Wellness; Community Services; Labour, Skills and Immigration; and Seniors and Long-Term Care, as well as the Office of Addictions and Mental Health and Nova Scotia Health. It will open in a former hotel on Wyse Road near downtown Dartmouth.
The building will continue to operate as a shelter, with additional on-site clinic access for residents. The clinic will serve clients of the shelter, as well as community members referred for nursing care by Nova Scotia Health.
In addition to the clinic, which will be open seven days a week, there is an on-site support team – including a wellness coordinator, continuing-care coordinator, community outreach worker, and other health care professionals – to provide wraparound support for residents and prepare them for independent living.
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Launch of surgical e-referral
A new electronic surgical consult referral system, Ocean eReferrals, is keeping patients better informed on the status of their surgery referral, leading to shorter wait times. It will also make sending and receiving surgical referrals easier and faster for primary care providers and surgeons.
With the new system, primary care providers send their requests for surgical consultations through e-referral instead of faxing, emailing, or mailing requests directly to a surgeon. It also allows for better tracking, review, and management of referrals and, in time, will include consult wait time information to allow for faster consults.
(Pictured above: Sarah Miles, Nova Scotia Health Central Intake Office manager, held a quick huddle with our new referral officers to celebrate the milestone this morning. Back row: Shaunn Goodwin, Joanne Tough-Marcos, Marie Dolan, Megan Adams, Melanie Simmons, and Debra Heyer. Front row: Sarah Miles, Sonal Dawar, Theresa Steele, and Jayesh Chaube)
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Improving Care for Transgender, Gender-Diverse and Intersex Nova Scotians
The 2023-24 budget included funding for improving health care for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Nova Scotia. It includes $1.7 million more in funding for gender-affirming surgeries.
The budget also includes $368,000 in new funding to expand prideHealth across the province. PrideHealth supports primary health care for members of the two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex and asexual community. It also provides resources to Nova Scotia Health and IWK Health staff. The prideHealth budget will increase to $803,000 in 2024-25.
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Unsung Health care Heroes
Unsung Heroes is a monthly recognition initiative that celebrates exceptional individuals who quietly make a difference working behind the scenes. These team members demonstrate extraordinary commitment to their roles with no expectation of praise or recognition for their dedication to patients, clients, families, visitors, and/or colleagues.
March and April recipients will be announced in May.
To nominate a team member, scan the QR code. Criteria for nominees include:
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Going above and beyond: demonstrating a pattern of going the extra mile
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Inspiration: inspiring change in others
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Professionalism: being respected for their professionalism and know-how
- Positive impact: making notable positive impacts on patients, clients, families, visitors, and/or colleagues
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Displaying Nova Scotia Health Values: working in a values-based way and demonstrating one or more of the following:
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Respect: demonstrating a pattern of caring for each other and those we serve
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Integrity: being recognized for their honest and ethical principles
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Courage: leading by example and doing what is right, even when it may be difficult
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Innovation: embracing change, learning new things, and exploring new possibilities
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Accountability: cultivating an environment that encourages ownership and responsibility of actions and decisions
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Community Pharmacy Primary Care Clinics expanding locations
The Community Pharmacy Primary Care Clinic program will expand to 26 locations. Nine new locations will open Monday, May 1, and the other five will open by the end of May. The first 12 community pharmacy primary care clinics launched in February. Since then, these clinics have provided more than 9,000 services to more than 5,000 Nova Scotians.
Pharmacists in these clinics can treat and prescribe medication for patients with common illnesses or who have chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). They can also provide care for strep throat, including diagnosis and treatment.
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Increased transparency, and accountability for primary care
As part of public reporting of the Action for Health strategy, more primary care data has been added to the virtual dashboard.
New data to be included on the dashboard includes:
- total visits to VirtualCareNS
- total visits to mobile primary care clinics
- total visits to Nova Scotia Health’s primary care clinics
- total visits to urgent treatment centres
- total visits to urgent care centres.
Need a Family Practice Registry data moving to the dashboard includes:
- number of registrants by zone, network and cluster
- reasons for registration
- number of new registrants
- number of registrants who found a provider
- number of registrants who have access to primary care clinics
- number of people who have signed up for VirtualCareNS.
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Major construction milestone reached for new Cape Breton Cancer Centre
The CBRM Health Care Redevelopment Project recently poured the concrete for the bunkers that will house two linear accelerators (LINACs). LINACs are highly sophisticated machines used to provide targeted radiation treatment to patients with a wide variety of cancers. Construction of the new stand-alone centre, located at the back of the existing Cape Breton Regional Hospital, is expected to be completed in late 2024.
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Nurse at 911 takes the pressure off ambulances, emergency departments
The Emergency Health Services (EHS) Medical Communications Centre is the first in the country to include a nurse, a physician, and a clinical support paramedic to prioritize 911 calls for an ambulance.
“We have an entire clinical team in place that can provide some sort of contact with the patient, some kind of support, in their time of need.“ said Ahmed Jamshidi, manager of Patient Flow and Performance for the Medical Communications Centre at EHS.
The addition of a nurse supports Nova Scotia’s Action for Health plan by giving Nova Scotians access to appropriate health care while ensuring paramedics and ambulances are available for the most urgent calls.
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Easier pathway for medical laboratory technologists: Ifeoma Nonyelu's story
Becoming a certified practicing Medical Laboratory Technologist (MLT) and working with Nova Scotia Health has been dream for Ifeoma Nonyelu and she is thrilled that it has come to fruition.
Nonyelu is an internationally trained MLT from Nigeria, who is completing the medical laboratory science bridging program through the Michener Institute, the only institution in Canada devoted exclusively to applied health sciences education.
The Michener Institute offers a medical laboratory bridging program that prepares Internationally Educated Health Professionals (IEHPs) for their certification exams and help provide them with information on entry and integration into the Canadian health care workplace.
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Northern Zone’s virtual crisis liaison nurse pilot program supports
Emergency Departments
As a virtual crisis liaison nurse, Emily Ferguson is providing crisis mental health support for patients who present with mental health concerns in two of the regional emergency departments in Northern Zone.
The Mental Health and Addictions program (MHAP) in Northern Zone has been piloting the virtual crisis assessment program at Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre in Amherst and Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow since May 2022. As part of the pilot, Ferguson offers virtual assessments on weekends which provides additional support for the emergency department doctors who have a patient presenting with a mental health concern.
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Nova Scotia Health launches pilot for family practice anesthesiology in Yarmouth |
To help address the national shortage of physicians who can administer anesthesia during surgeries, Nova Scotia Health has launched a two-month pilot for family practice anesthetists (FPAs) at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital.
Prominent in Ontario and British Columbia, FPAs are family physicians who have received the required training and certification to administer anesthesia during surgery. They provide local and general anesthetics and provide support on surgical cases that are less complex. This additional support can make the best use of anesthesiology specialists to support those cases needing a more robust scope of practice.
The pilot is allowing two qualified family physicians to provide support for scheduled surgical lists and on-call support. They will work alongside a Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada-certified anesthesiologist who has travelled from Ontario to oversee the pilot.
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Reducing barriers to virtual care in Yarmouth
People who need help accessing virtual care now have assistance at Yarmouth Regional Hospital, thanks to a partnership between the Yarmouth Hospital Foundation and Nova Scotia Health.
Known as Virtual Care @ Yarmouth Hub, this six-month pilot project is part of each organization’s commitment to reducing barriers to services and resources.
Broadband internet-connected computers and mobile devices are set up in a safe and secure room at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital Learning Centre for confidential virtual appointments from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday.
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Nova Scotia Health Employee & Partner Stories |
Instilling confidence while helping clients move more and sit less
Many of us know that we need more movement in our daily lives, but it can be difficult to know where to start, especially while living with a chronic health condition.
“Our world is set up for convenience, so it takes a mind shift to add more movement into our lives,” said Jessica Eisener, wellness navigator in Nova Scotia Health’s Western Zone.
Eisener helps her clients establish the ‘why’ of their movement goals, which can include reducing their medication, sleeping better, pain reduction, losing weight or improvements to their mental health.
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The J&W Murphy Foundation Makes Historic $3,000,000 Gift to Dartmouth General Hospital
The Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation recently announced a transformative gift from the J&W Murphy Foundationto kick off their ‘Lead On’ Capital Campaign.
The $3 million gift will support four key campaign areas: African Nova Scotian Healthcare Bursaries, the Geriatric Care Nurse Practitioner Program, Palliative Care, and the provision of priority equipment and technology.
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Reflections on the first year at Hospice Cape Breton
In March 2022, Hospice Cape Breton began accepting patients.
A stand-alone, home-like health care facility, located on land that was donated by Membertou First Nation, Hospice Cape Breton provides care for patients nearing the end of life. The hospice was established through the long-standing partnership of the Hospice Palliative Care Society of Cape Breton County and Nova Scotia Health.
To mark a year since the hospice began accepting patients, members of the hospice team and the Hospice Society shared their reflections on the hospice’s impact.
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Lab professionals are key partners in health care delivery
Delivering quality health care to Nova Scotians is a coordinated effort by many teams within the province’s health ecosystem.
Often, critical “behind the scenes” roles, such as those of laboratory professionals, can go unnoticed. However, this team has an integral role in supporting health care providers in diagnosing and treating patients by delivering timely, accurate test results.
Lynn Murray works with Pathology and Lab Medicine, specifically as the Lab Standards Coordinator for the Nova Scotia Provincial Blood Coordinating Team (NSPBCT), and shares more about the important role of laboratory professionals.
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Atlantic Mentorship Network - Pain & Addiction first annual Dr. John Fraser Award for Excellence in Mentorship
The Atlantic Mentorship Network - Pain & Addiction (AMN) recently established the annual Dr. John Fraser Award for Excellence in Mentorship, with the first recipient none other than the award's namesake, Dr. John Fraser. The award was created and honours someone who embodies the positive characteristics and qualities of a mentor.
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Co-director of Mental Health and Addictions for Central Zone, Dorothy Edem, believes “It takes a village” to create a stronger, more equitable health system
“It takes a village to raise a child.” Dorothy Edem’s family lived by this African proverb during her upbringing in Calabar, Nigeria. It’s a philosophy Edem embraces not only in the context of family but in her collaborative approach to work.
Edem’s identity as a person of African descent is a significant source of pride and informs her work. “I know my background. I know my ancestry. I have a strong sense of self because of my culture. With my African heritage, I continue to appreciate some of the core traditions such as family, the food we eat, the bright traditional attire/clothing .... that feels like home.”
Read her full story here.
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QEII Foundation Comfort & Care grant helps 2SLGBTQIA+ patients feel seen in health care spaces
Words matter — particularly in health care.
When identifying patients by their pronouns, gender identity, and name, the correct words can often be assumed, leading to discomfort for those seeking medical services.
“Almost everybody uses pronouns,” says prideHealth coordinator Garry Dart, who identifies with he/she/they pronouns and has worked for years to reduce stigma and barriers to health care, including HIV advocacy. “Some people don’t, but most folks do, whether they realize it or not.”
In a world that increasingly embraces new and emerging identities, Garry works to improve access to safe, coordinated, comprehensive primary health care for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and believes the health care world should follow suit.
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DGH Foundation Healthcare Scholarship for African Nova Scotians |
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Shining a light on Mental Health and Addictions Program Social Workers
Social workers within Mental Health and Addictions span across the continuum of care. We see them in community mental health and addictions, inpatient services, recovery support centres, outreach, and withdrawal management. We asked social workers throughout the province to share with us why they chose to go into social work or share their passion.
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Chats on Change - Episode 11: Eunice Ojeabulu
Eunice Ojeabulu arrived in Nova Scotia poised to greet a health care recruiter and start a nursing career, both the recruiter and the opportunity were too good to be true. Despite the shocking circumstances, Eunice continued on her journey to work as a Registered Nurse in Nova Scotia and also became an advocate for other internationally educated nurses. Soon, Eunice and I met at a Community Conversation stop in Cherry Brook and our chat set a path in motion to change things.
Contact:
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