January 5, 2020

WCHSE 2020 Conference May 14-15, 2020-Canceled

Thompson Rivers University is proud to host the next Western Canadian Health Sciences Educators conference.

Dates: May 14-15 2020

“Building Relationships: A Vision for Safer Care”

Opening keynote presented by Dr. Cathy Smith

Event location is Sandman Signature Hotel 225 Lorne St, Kamloops, for conference accommodation , use booking number WCHSE 220164

Registration

 

 

 

Our Presenters:

Cathy Smith, BA (hons), MA, PhD

Cathy Smith has worked as a simulationist in health professional education for over 25
years, consulting with various educational and assessment organizations locally,
nationally and internationally. She works with intra and interprofessional teams in
undergraduate, graduate, continuing education and faculty development contexts. She
has developed curriculum for diverse formats, ranging from face-to-face to web-based
platforms. Recognition for her work includes: the Ruedy Award (AFMC) for medical
education innovation; the Blizzard Award (CSTLHE) for outstanding teaching; the
Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) Outstanding Educator Award;
and the SIMone Simulation Citizen of the Year Award. She is the incoming ASPE
International Committee Chair and also serves on the editorial board of Advances in
Simulation. Recent peer reviewed articles include the ASPE Standards of Best
Practice for human role players in simulation. Cathy has a particular interest in the role
of simulated/standardized participants. She is interested in advancing the science, art
and practice of simulation through research, teaching and the development of evidence-
based strategies, processes and tools.
LinkedIn: ca.linkedin.com/in/cathysmithconsulting
Twitter: @csmith_toronto

 

Dr. Judy Boychuk Duchscher

Judy Boychuk Duchscher maintains a passionate interest in, and commitment to the issues of transition for the new nursing graduate. Duchscher launched Nursing The Future with an inspired group of new graduates in June of 2006. This pan-Canadian initiative, sponsored by provincial governments and supported by regional healthcare sectors and educational stakeholders in the healthcare community, serves as a bridge between the ideals taught in undergraduate nursing education and the realities of the ‘real’ world of professional practice. Members of NTF are offered a website, annual nursing graduate conference, transition support manual, as well as onsite and online support networks that connect them other new graduates and with nursing and healthcare leaders in their communities.

Duchscher’s 14 year devotion to this topic has been informed and inspired by literature that recounts the traumatic socialization to the role of professional health care practitioner that is experienced by the new nursing graduate. Her research and study has uncovered an experience of socialization fraught with perpetual chaos for which the graduates felt ill-prepared, high levels of stress, disappointment in the realities of professional practice, and feelings of isolation in the workplace.

The majority of new nursing recruits today are being hired into hospitals faced with unprecedented increases in patient acuity, higher nurse to patient ratios due to critical shortages in nursing staff, and reductions in the staffing ratios of seasoned expert nurses to novice beginners. Further to this, due to shortages of experienced applicants seeking full-time nursing work, the practice of hiring new nursing graduates into high-acuity clinical environments such as Intensive Care and Emergency has become a pragmatic reality for many hospitals. Upon completing her Master’s degree in the area of new graduate professional socialization, Duchscher was contracted by the Regional Health Authority in Saskatoon to study the realities faced by a busy emergency department integrating new nurses into this chaotic and high-intensity health care environment. The findings of this research underscored the essential nature of mentoring relationships between seasoned and novice nurses, and identified a lack of foundational nursing experience and knowledge flexibility in the new graduate that is essential to practicing in emergency. The outcome of this study was a set of recommendations that included the adherence to strict selection criteria when hiring graduates into emergency, a more tailored, individualized, and staged approach to orientation, and the recommendation of formalized mentoring programs for novice practitioners. Using her two prior nursing studies on the transition to medical-surgical and emergency nursing as a foundation, and drawing on her in-depth knowledge of and experience with using the grounded theory approach to qualitative research, Duchscher’s engaged in doctoral research that expanded on existing knowledge of the new graduate’s first 12 months of professional socialization to acute-care nursing. Out of her long-standing program of research in this area has evolved a Stages of Transition © theory and a model of Transition Shock © (see http://www.nursingthefuture.ca/transition_theory for a comprehensive foundation of her program of research). These constructs serve as the foundation for NTF and are being used across North America as frameworks for the integration of newly graduated nurses into the contemporary workplace. Duchscher’s future plans for new graduate research can be found on the website under ‘Transition Theory’.

As a scholar, Duchscher has received numerous awards for her research, teaching, and study of nursing. She has studied hospital nursing in Canada, focusing her efforts primarily on furthering the understanding of the new nursing graduate transition experience as it influences, and is influenced by post secondary educational preparation and programs of support within the healthcare industry. Duchscher has been recognized by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, the Saskatchewan Nurses Foundation, the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association, the Izaak Walton Killam Foundation, the University of Alberta Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, the Alberta Heritage Medical Research Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Canadian Nurses Foundation for her contributions to, and potential for excellence in qualitative research and nursing scholarship. In 2008 Duchscher received the Sigma Theta Tau International (Mu Sigma) Award for Community Leadership, was inducted into the Strathmore’s Who’s Who Directory, was recognized for her work with new graduates and the development of Nursing The Future by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health with the 2009 Healthcare Excellence Award for Leadership, and was most recently awarded the 2010 Outstanding New Investigator Award from the Canadian Association of Nursing Research and the 2012 Excellence in Nursing Research and Consultation from the American Association of Professional Nursing Development (ANDP). Duchscher has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters on this subject, several of which have been collaborative efforts with nursing and educational leaders across North America and Australia. She is completing the 2nd Edition of the transition guide for newly graduated nurses available through NTF and beginning a book for managers and educators that outlines the challenges of professional integration and offers structured and creative solutions for successfully engaging these young professionals and promoting a healthy workplace for nurses overall. Duchscher continues to Chair the Workplace Integration for New Nurses (WINN)/Nursing The Future collaborative conference with rotating Co-Chairs from health regions across Canada (see www.winn-ntf.com) and is a sought after speaker on issues related to the contemporary climate of acute-care nursing, new graduate transition to professional practice in hospitals, leadership succession in new nurses and understanding and working with multi-generational nurses in the workplace.

Dr. Duchscher can be reached through newgraduates@nursingthefuture.ca or at her personal email judy.duchscher@me.com

For information on Dr. Duchscher’s work, please access her CV here.