Investment in life-long learning benefits nursing and allied health staff
One of BC’s most philanthropic donors has again dug deep into his own pocket to ensure VCH nursing and allied health staff are some of the most highly trained in the province.
Robert and Greta Ho have presented VCH with a gift of $2.5 million to establish the Robert H.N. Ho Enhancing Patient Care Fund. This new fund will support education, professional development and life-long learning for nurses and allied health professionals across all VCH Communities of Care.
“This is truly an awe-inspiring gift,” said Susan Wannamaker, VCH Vice President Professional Practice and Chief Clinical Information Officer. “This gift will allow us to put the heart back into healthcare by allowing VCH to look after its most passionate and committed employees and, in doing so, support them in building quality care environments where our patients – and our staff – will thrive.
Susan Wannamaker, VCH Vice President Professional Practice and Chief Clinical Information Officer
Formal recognition of the Ho’s gift took place Thursday, October 9.
The celebration featured speakers from across the organization, including RN Sarah Suozzi from Richmond Hospital who highlighted her team’s impressive work done in relation to Releasing Time to Care, and Prab Gill, a RN and former Practice Initiatives Lead (now seconded to CST) who spoke to achievements related to the Reducing Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections quality improvement project that was initiated across VCH as part of the Quality Academy.
The five pillars of enhanced patient care
Creating a culture of learning and continuous improvement is inextricably linked to excellence in patient care. For this reason, Robert and Greta Ho’s gift will support the Enhanced Patient Care Program based on the following five pillars:
- VCH Improvement Strategy – unit-based programs focusing on LEAN breakthrough initiatives and Releasing Time to Care that will teach frontline staff how to initiate positive change, and improve patient outcomes and satisfaction.
- Quality Academy Sponsorship – An innovative professional development course that will enable staff to lead quality improvement initiatives at healthcare’s frontline.
- VCH-sponsored conferences – Funding will allow VCH to host at least one conference per year within the region to allow the greatest number of its 12,000 nurses and allied health professionals from across the region to attend and learn.
- Specialty education – Funding will allow for creation of a dedicated scholarship and bursary fund to support nurses and health care professionals to advance their education within specialty areas.
- Support for Innovation – Funding will support teams participating in the VCH Research Challenge to bring forward their research, attend workshops on research methods, and be paired with expert research mentors to conduct research projects, with supported knowledge translation of their research findings.
Investing in our people
As health care increasingly brings technology into the delivery of care, this gift – and how VCH will use it – recognizes that our nurses and allied health care professionals are vital to successful patient outcomes. More vital yet, is the recognition of continued professional development is of the utmost importance for overall system sustainability, as VCH strives to retain highly skilled people in all of its services and facilities.
“This gift from Robert and Greta Ho will allow us to invest in — and inspire – curiosity, leadership and initiative so we can do our best for our patients every day,” said Wannamaker. “We hope this gift encourages you to question the status quo of care today, build confidence in you new ideas and enables you to translate these new ideas into safe, high quality and superior care for your patients into the future.”