This project addresses the gap between locally generated research findings and practical implementation within Northern Health (NH). The student-led study on surge capacity, access, and flow at UHNBC identified important workforce-related challenges, including staffing strain, communication and coordination breakdowns, patient safety concerns, moral distress, and informal workarounds used by staff to sustain care during periods of emergency department crowding. The grant supports next steps, bringing student researchers, academic partners, and NH research users together to apply findings and identify how they can inform practical workforce, communication, and surge-response improvements.
The proposed activities will include three facilitated engagement sessions. These will include two in-person and one hybrid working session. The first session will focus on findings-to-priorities to share and discuss the student study findings with NH partners. The second session will use an ego-centric network mapping approach to identify the key roles, relationships, communication pathways, and decision points involved in surge response. The third session will validate the emerging network maps and co-develop an implementation-focused action plan.
Participants will include student researchers, faculty/research leads, NH research users, and health system partners involved in surge, access, and flow. This may include frontline nurses, clinical nurse educators, unit leaders, emergency department and inpatient representatives, access and flow/bed utilization staff, quality and safety representatives, and operational leaders. Where appropriate, participation may also include people with lived experience or patient/family advisors to help consider how surge practices affect patient and family experiences of care.
Anticipated outcomes include strengthened relationships between student researchers and NH research users; shared understanding of the workforce and patient safety implications of surge; identification of priority areas for action; and development of practical outputs such as visual network maps, a short implementation brief, and a research-user-informed action plan. The activity aims to move the student report from knowledge generation to knowledge use by clarifying who needs to be involved, where communication and role clarity can be improved, and what future quality improvement or research priorities should be pursued.
Additional team members and participating organizations:
Janelle O’Meara-Ewan (Nursing Student Co-Lead)
Laura Harvey (Medical Student Co-Lead)
Santiago Otalvaro Zapata (Team Member)