Celebrating the champions who improve long-term care
02/06/2018
Bruyère Continuing Care (Bruyère) proudly recognized Saint-Louis Residence (SLR) employees who take on leadership roles to improve care and quality of life for its residents.
In May 2015, SLR was the first long-term care home in the Champlain region and the first Francophone long-term care home in Ontario to be designated as a Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) candidate by the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO). This candidate designation has provided SLR with a framework to move forward on numerous initiatives and quality endeavors identified by staff, residents, families and their commitment to meet provincial quality indicator benchmarks.
Over the last three years, SLR’s best practice champions collaborated with the RNAO, residents and families, provided input and served as resources and mentors to other employees for the implementation of four best practice guidelines:
1. Prevention of falls and fall-related injuries in older adults;
2. Oral health: nursing assessment and interventions;
3. Promoting continence utilizing prompted voiding; and
4. Risk assessment and prevention of pressure ulcers.
SLR celebrated these 23 specially-trained champions, who took on an important leadership role and worked tirelessly to implement the guidelines—ultimately improving resident care.
“We got involved in the RNAO’s BPSO program to make of our long-term care home a safer place for residents to live and receive quality care, and an engaging and innovative place for our employees to work,” said Melissa Donskov, executive director of Long-Term Care at Bruyère.
“Now that we have adopted the prompted voiding best practice, nurses visit residents every two hours. By being proactive, we can help prevent them from developing skin irritations and sores. When we don’t have to treat such issues, our workload is greatly reduced and we are able to spend more quality time with our residents. It’s a win-win situation,” expressed Margarett Desca, registered nurse at SLR.
When designating SLR as a BPSO candidate, the RNAO expected that approximately 15 per cent of the nursing staff would become best practice champions. To date, SLR has exceeded those expectations, with 17 per cent of its nursing staff being champions.
“I want to sincerely thank every employee who was involved, one way or another, in implementing these guidelines. Your commitment to providing excellent care to our residents is commendable and your willingness to invest time and energy to ensure the success of these initiatives is truly inspiring. Thank you for taking our residents’ well-being to heart,” proudly said Guy Chartrand, president and CEO of Bruyère.
SLR looks forward to being awarded their full BPSO designation this April. It will be an accomplishment it will be proud to share with Accreditation Canada surveyors next spring. SLR is committed to sustaining its efforts as it utilizes the framework and strategies to continue to implement more best practice guidelines and enhance the quality of care for long-term care residents.