Learning+Activity+8

Part A:

1. What is the Office of Nursing Policy (ONP)?

Health Canada's Office of Nursing Policy (ONP) was established in 1999 to help Canadians maintain and improve their health through the development of policy which integrates the views of nurses and the nursing profession.

2. Explain the primary function that it serves.


 * Identifying and building awareness of issues affecting nursing
 * Commissions and promotes research related to its strategic priorities and to matters of emerging concern in Canada
 * Acts as a knowledge-broker for nursing and health-care research, interpreting, analyzing and disseminating results to provide evidence for Health Canada's policy decisions
 * Creates numerous opportunities for government and health-care leaders to link with each other in policy meetings

3. Identify and describe a key contribution by the ONP in the past five years to public policy that helped shape changes in the health care system.

“Healthy Nurses, Healthy Workplaces” campaign to advocate for improved working conditions, workplaces, recruitment and retention of nurses.

Part B:

1.a. Identify which determinants of health apply to your particular scenario and provide a rationale for how the determinants fit within the project.


 * Education because the staff will require a base education to be within the health care field and further education on the changes occurring on the unit.
 * Culture because of the social norms and accepted values and beliefs on the unit before, during and after the change.

b. Describe how the principles of population health would be used to guide the planning and implementation of your project.


 * Evidence based decisions and information are what guides this change, the motivating factors outweigh the restraining forces because of this.
 * Multi level responsibilities include management, staff and patients. Inter collaboration is crucial for this change to continue along Lewin’s movement process into the refreezing.
 * Partnership and shared accountability links to the individual and collective responsibilities of the staff and management.

c. Relating back to the goals, objectives and strategies you identified earlier in learning activity week 2, how would you apply the population health process, deciding appropriate strategies, taking an action, and evaluation outcomes to your scenario project?

Our goal is the addition of LPN staff onto the cardiac unit with minimal disruption in quality of patient care.

The strategies include:
 * One addition staff member per orientating staff member, per shift working on the unit during the change period to facilitate new staff learning and orientation
 * Mandatory, paid education sessions related to horizontal violence, scope of practice, unit behavioral expectations
 * Ongoing evaluative feedback opportunities related to change process in the form of personal communications, staff meetings, anonymous options (ex: comment drop box) and focus groups.

d. In today’s political climate, current policies, and funding situation consider where in the policy cycle your project’s goals fit? Develop a brief action plan of what political steps are necessary to advance your project’s goals and objectives. Who are your political allies and partner interest groups?

The step within the policy cycle that our project is currently in is interest group activation. Our interest group would be the staff members, management and the health authority funding the project. It is important to realize that the political cycle is not linear and the process can return to previous steps if barriers or resistance to change occurs.

The political allies include local MLA’s and MP’s who can bring the funding of such programs to the political arena. Our partner interest groups include heart and stroke foundation, nursing regulatory bodies and unions as well as community members.