Pikangikum Health Authority recognized by RNAO
The health authority in Pikangikum First Nation, north of Kenora, was recently recognized by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) and was added to its world-renowned Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) program.
On Thursday, April 25, Pikangikum Health Authority (PHA) and the rest of the new BPSOs, provincial Minister of Long-Term Care Stan Cho and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones were invited by the RNAO to a launch event in Missisauga to recognize the new additions to the program.
According to the RNAO’s website, the BPSO Program is a “knowledge translation” strategy to help optimize health outcomes at all levels. To become a BPSO, organizations must submit a proposal, and once they receive designation from the RNAO, they must implement three of the organization’s best practice guidelines over the next three years and commit to evaluating their impact on patients and their health systems.
Of the three best practice guidelines the organizations implement, they need to include the RNAO’s person and family-centred care, and transitions in care guidelines.
The Best Practice Guidelines and BPSO programs are the product of the RNAO’s CEO, Doris Grinspun, who launched the Best Practices Guidelines program in 1999. The BPSO program was launched a few years later, and since then, more than 1,500 organizations have been granted the designation in Ontario, the rest of the country and the world.
“We say it’s an Ontario success story that has spread around the world,” said Grinspun.
Some of the other guidelines cover introducing telehealth solutions, sustaining staff levels, caring for people with perinatal depression, crisis intervention and breastfeeding, for example.
There are already eight Indigenous communities that are a part of the BPSO community, including Shibogama First Nations Council near Sioux Lookout, but Pikangikum is the first health authority to join the program, said Grinspun.
“We are absolutely super proud and super eager to share with them as well as to learn from them,” she said. “We believe that this will provide them tremendous opportunity to enrich their practice and their outcomes.” Pikangikum Health Authority will also have the opportunity to connect with other Indigenous focused BPSO’s though the RNAO’s Indigenous focus consortium, Grinspun explained.
“The needs in Indigenous communities are so dire, for the most part,” she said. "The adaptation of a program that is mainstream to the needs, and to the ways of knowing, the ways of thinking and the ways of doing of Indigenous communities is necessary.”
The RNAO has developed the BPSO Program and their best practices guidelines with funding from the Goverment of Ontario, but health organizations outside of the province who want the BPSO designation need to get funding from their own governments. While the program itself is free to participate in, fulfilling some of the guidelines may require a larger financial investment on the health organization or government department’s part.
In Chile, for example, where the best practice guidelines have been implemented in about 16 public hospitals, the federal government has nine full-time staff dedicated to the program, said Grinspun. “We don’t charge money, we charge commitment,” she said.
“All of [the guidelines] produce incredible results in terms of patient family satisfaction, community satisfaction, and in terms of improvements in health outcomes and less complications,” said Grinspun.
Other countries that have organizations that implement the RNAO’s best practice guidelines include Mexico, Switzerland, China and soon-to-be, Brazil, Nigeria and Kenya.
Applications for the BPSO Program open every three years for health organizations in Ontario like hospitals and public health units. Applications from long term care homes and Indigenous communities are considered on a more rolling basis, said Grinspun. To learn more about the BPSO Program and the best practice guidelines contact info@rnao.ca.
Serena Austin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kenora Miner and News
