Resources

Nursing Home Without Walls (NHWW) was created by Suzanne Dupuis-Blanchard, PhD, the Université de Moncton’s Health Research Chair in Population Aging, director of the Centre for Aging Research and full professor in the School of Nursing. Beginning as a pilot program in 2019, NHWW launched in four nursing homes located in Port Elgin, Lamèque, Paquetville and Inkerman, rural communities in New Brunswick.

The Quality Improvement (QI) Workbook offers a foundational guide for teams in long-term care (LTC) settings to take the first steps in developing a quality improvement initiative, with examples focused on improving the appropriate use of antipsychotics. Developed by Healthcare Excellence Canada in partnership with Health Quality BC, the workbook provides practical exercises, templates and prompts to help teams plan, implement and sustain meaningful improvements in care.

The HEC Health Equity Framework is an action-oriented resource rooted in an understanding of systems of inequities.

This workbook supports paramedics and paramedic leaders looking to improve care through quality improvement (QI).

Denmark is known globally for its advanced in-home and community-based health and social care systems, designed to support older adults and enable aging in place.

A medical device is any instrument or component used to treat, diagnose, or prevent a human disease or abnormal physical condition. In this context, medical devices used on animals are not included. All medical devices pose some level of risk based on their use in diagnosis or treatment, or due to malfunction. In Canada, medical devices are grouped into four classes based on the expected level of risk to a person's health and safety with Class I offering the lowest risk.

A pressure ulcer is a localized injury to the skin and/or underlying tissue, usually over a bony prominence as a result of pressure, or pressure in combination with shear and or friction (IHI, n.d.; RNAO, 2011).

Patients expect safe care, and healthcare providers strive to deliver care that results in better health and safe, effective outcomes for patients. However, events that harm patients do occur while care is being provided, or as a result of that care. While risk is an inherent part of care, we know that many of these events that cause harm can be prevented using current knowledge and practices. Many of these events occur only rarely, but all can have a severe impact on the lives and well-being of patients.

Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) is the third most common cause of vascular mortality worldwide and comprises deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) (Nicholson, et al., 2020). DVT occurs when an abnormal blood clot forms inside a vein deep in the leg. DVT may cause leg pain and/or swelling but is often clinically silent. PE occurs when all or part of a DVT breaks away from its site in a vein and travels through the venous system to lodge in the lungs. PE may cause chest pain, shortness of breath, tachycardia, hemoptysis, or pre-syncope but is often clinically silent. In clinical practice, about two-thirds of VTE episodes manifest as DVT and one-third as PE with or without DVT (Nicholson, et al., 2020).