Themes:

Collaboration

The theme of collaboration is defined as “a recognized relationship among different sectors or groups, which is formed to take action on an issue in a way that is more effective or sustainable than might be achieved by the public health sector acting alone." (PHAC, 2007; p. 9) It refers to both intersectoral and interdisciplinary team collaboration

References:  Public Health Agency of Canada. Core competencies for public health in Canada: Release 1.0. website [ 2007; Available from: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/ccph-cesp/pdfs/cc-manual-eng090407.Pdf

Research Funding

Caring for Seniors with Multiple Chronic Conditions: A Team Approach to e-Health Supported Transitional Care

The proposed study will focus on learning about how to best implement a new model of interprofessional, community-based stroke rehabilitation so that it becomes normalized in practice. It will also...

 Active

 Sept. 1, 2016-Aug. 31, 2018

Co-Primary Investigator

The Aging, Community and Health Research Unit (ACHRU) Community Partnership Program for Diabetes Self-Management for Older Adults - Canada.

Purpose: To further test the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit (ACHRU) - Community Partnership Program (CPP) in diverse primary care and community settings, with diverse populations and across...

 Active

 2018-2023

Co-Primary Investigator

Mobilizing a Caregiver-Friendly Workplace Standard: A Partnership Approach

Purpose: To focus on scaling up the Caregiver Inclusive and Accommodating Workplace Organizations Standard’s uptake nationally and...

 Active

 2018-2023

Co-Investigator

Primary Health Care as the Foundation for Health System Performance, Integration and Sustainability: INSPIRE-PHC-2 - Building Primary Health Care and Public Health Collaboration with and for the Community

A prospective case study design will be used to explore the implementation and outcomes of an intervention to stimulate a primary care and public health collaboration in an urban neighbourhood in...

 Active

 2018-2020

Primary Investigator

Strengthening a population health approach for health system planning

A new law in Ontario, called the Patients First Act, requires public health units (PHUs) and Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) to work together in new ways. This project aims to answer the...

 Active

 2017-2018

Primary Investigator

Successful Knowledge Translation from the Perspective of Diverse Knowledge Users: An exploratory study

The aim of the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit is to promote optimal aging at home. The population includes older adults with many chronic diseases and their family caregivers. The program...

 Active

 2016-2017

Co-Primary Investigator

Contributing to, and Learning from, the Lives of Older Adults: Practical learning experiences in the care of older adults as trained community volunteers for health care

Health TAPESTRY (Health Teams Advancing Patient Experience: Strengthening Quality) is a community-based approach, centered in primary care, which aims to promote optimal aging through four...

 Active

 2016-2017

Co-Primary Investigator

TAPESTRY: Teams Advancing Patient Experience: Strengthening Quality

Health TAPESTRY works to help people stay healthier for longer in the places where they live. The health goals of our clients are the basis for engaging people in meaningful ways. We are doing this...

 Active

 2013-2016

Co-Investigator

Building Primary Health Care Nursing Leadership to Enhance Collaboration between Primary Health Care and Public Health

The objectives of this four and a half year program of research were to: explore structures and processes required to build successful collaborations between PC and PH; understand the nature of...

 Completed

 2008-2012

Primary Investigator

Home & Community Care with a focus on transitions between institutional and community care settings. Ontario SPOR Support Unit – IMPACT Award Home & Community Care

This is a pragmatic effectiveness-implementation trial to evaluate a hospital-to-home transitional care intervention compared to usual care for older adults with multiple chronic conditions and...

 Active

 Feb. 1, 2016- Sept. 30, 2016

Co-Investigator

Scholarly Work

Canadian Centre for Advanced Practice Nursing Research (CCAPNR) Faculty Member

CCAPNR involves a group of multi-disciplinary, university-based researchers dedicated to creating new solutions for problems that challenge health and social services through the use of new models of care and evaluation. The team engages in research and professional education activities to address CCAPNR goals.

 Active

Committees

Deputy Director, World health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario) for Primary Care and Health Human Resource

Since 2009, Dr. Ruta Valaitis has been a Deputy Director, World health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario) for Primary Care and Health Human Resources. Dr. Valaitis was elected Secretary to the Pan American Nursing and Midwifery Collaborating Centres Network (PANNMCC) and served in that role from 2011 to 2013.

 Active

Committees

Health in the Hubs

The McMaster University School of Nursing (SON) is dedicated to improving the health of residents in our local communities and fulfilling the School’s mission of community engaged scholarship.

 Active

Projects

A Protocol for a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial Using the Health Teams Advancing Patient Experience: Strengthening Quality (Health TAPESTRY) Platform Approach to Promote Person-centred Primary Health Care for Older Adults

The objective of this study is to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the Health Teams Advancing Patient Experience: Strengthening Quality (Health TAPESTRY) approach in older adults.

 Completed

Articles

A Scoping Literature Review of Collaboration Between Primary Care and Public Health

The purpose of this scoping literature review was to determine what is known about: 1) structures and processes required to build successful collaborations between primary care (PC) and public health (PH); 2) outcomes of such collaborations; and 3) markers of their success.

 Completed

Articles

A Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Extranet: Supporting Local Communication and Information Dissemination

The objective of this study was to explore the use and perceptions of a local Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Extranet and its potential to support future information and communication applications. The SARS Extranet was a single, managed electronic and limited access system to manage local, provincial and other SARS control information.

 Completed

Articles

Addressing Quadruple Aims through Primary Care and Public Health Collaboration: Ten Canadian Case Studies.

his study aimed to explore the nature of Canadian primary care - public health collaborations, their aims, motivations, activities, collaboration barriers and enablers, and perceived outcomes.

 Completed

Articles

An E-Health Tool to Support Collaborative Practice for Community Reintegration of Stroke Survivors:[My Stroke Team = MyST] Ready for Real World Testing!

The research objective was to collaborate with frontline homecare workers (e.g. care coordinators, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and personal support workers) and key stakeholders (e.g. Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, Heart and Stroke Foundation) to inform, design and build an innovative mobile health application to support communication and collaboration. A Webinar was given for the Ontario Home Care Association, January 27, 2016.

 Completed

Projects

An Environmental Scan of Health and Social System Navigation Services in an Urban Canadian Community

Systems navigation services provided by a designated provider or team have the potential to address health and social disparities. We conducted an environmental scan of navigation activities in a large urban Canadian community to identify and describe: service providers who engage in systems navigation; the clients who require systems navigation support and the issues they face; activities involved; and barriers and facilitators in providing systems navigation support to clients.

 Completed

Articles

An Environmental Scan of Primary Care and Public Health in the Province of British Columbia

This report describes an environmental scan that was completed in May 2009 of primary care and public health in the province of British Columbia (BC) as one of a series of steps in a larger program of research: Strengthening Primary Health Care through Primary Care and Public Health Collaboration Study (Strengthening PHC Study).

 Completed

Reports

An Environmental Scan of Primary Care and Public Health in the Province of Nova Scotia

This report describes an environmental scan that was completed in July 2009 of primary care and public health in the province of Nova Scotia (NS) as one of a series of steps in a larger program of research: Strengthening Primary Health Care through Primary Care and Public Health Collaboration Study (Strengthening PHC Study).

 Completed

Reports

An Environmental Scan of Primary Care and Public Health in the Province of Ontario

This report describes an environmental scan, which includes information up to May 2009, related to primary care (PC) and public health (PH) in the province of Ontario (ON). It is one of a series of steps in a larger program of research entitled: Strengthening Primary Health Care through Primary Care and Public Health Collaboration Study (Strengthening PHC Study).

 Completed

Reports

An Online Toolkit to Support Public Health and Primary Care Collaboration

The aim of this toolkit is to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes that support the development and maintenance of successful collaborations between primary care and public health. This toolkit is for practitioners, managers, policy makers, and students from a variety of disciplines working in primary care and public health.

 Completed

Projects

Brokering for the Primary Health Care Needs of Recent Immigrant Families in Atlantic, Canada

This case study describes how broker organizations supported a network of community-based services to work together to address the primary healthcare needs of recent immigrant families with young children.

 Completed

Articles

Competence Trust Among Providers as Fundamental to a Culturally Competent Primary Health Care System for Immigrant Families

The aim was to explore how an organization's trust in the cultural competency of other service providers (competence trust) can influence the effectiveness of a services network in meeting the needs of recent immigrant families.

 Completed

Articles

Fostering Interactions: The networking needs of community health nursing researchers and decision makers

The purpose of the study on which this article is based was to determine the current extent of linkages among Canadian community health nursing researchers and decision makers and to identify perceptions around the structure and function of potential networks.

 Completed

Articles

Implementation and maintenance of patient navigation programs linking primary care with community-based health and social services: a scoping literature review

This paper fills a gap in knowledge to reveal what is known about motivators and factors influencing implementation and maintenance of patient navigation programs in primary care that link patients to community-based health and social services. It also reports on outcomes from these studies to help identify gaps in research that can inform future studies.

 Completed

Articles

Invited advisor on a realist review pertaining to primary care and public health collaboration related to social pediatrics led by researchers at Public Health Ontario

Dr. Ingrid Tyler's, Public Health Ontario, presentation on 'The Social Pediatrics Realist Review' focussed interest on child and maternal health and related social pediatrics, as well as, advancing primary care/public health collaboration in this area. Dr. Ruta Valaitis was an invited advisor on this presentation.

 Completed

Committees

Invited Member of the E-Health Steering Committee for the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Norfolk Local Health Integrated Network (LHIN 4)

During 2005 - 2006, Dr. Ruta Valaitis served as an invited member of the E-Health Steering Committee for the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Norfolk Local Health Integrated Network (LHIN 4).

 Completed

Committees

Invited Member of the MOHLTC Family Health Team Action Group Sub-committee on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

During 2006 - 2007, Dr. Ruta Valaitis served as an invited member of the Ministry of health and Long Term care (MOHLTC) Family Health Team (FHT) Action Group Sub-committee on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP).

 Completed

Committees

Invited Member: Community Advisory Neighbourhood Profiles Reference Group, Hamilton ON

Invited Member: Community Advisory Neighbourhood Profiles Reference Group, Hamilton ON

 Completed

Committees

Knowledge Translation, Research Uptake Strategies: Aging Community and Health Research Unit

The Aging Community Health Research Unit is a large multi-jurisdictional team which has received funding (over $5 Million) from CIHR and the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care.

 Completed

Projects

Member of the Tackling Poverty Together (TPT) Advisory Committee, Hamilton Community Foundation

Dr. Ruta Valaitis was a member of the Hamilton Community Foundation (HCF) advisory and review committee from 2008 - 2010 for community grant related to the Tackling Poverty Together: Building Strong Neighbourhoods program. In 2011, Dr. Valaitis was a member of the Tackling Poverty Together Advisory Committee.

 Completed

Committees

Methods, Strategies and Technologies Used to Conduct a Scoping Literature Review of Collaboration Between Primary Care and Public Health

This paper describes the methods, strategies and technologies used to conduct a scoping literature review examining primary care (PC) and public health (PH) collaboration. It presents challenges encountered as well as recommendations and 'lessons learned' from conducting the review with a large geographically distributed team comprised of researchers and decision-makers using an integrated knowledge translation approach.

 Completed

Articles

Ontario Provincial Health Links Evaluation: Interim Report from Research and Evaluation Collaborative

Report submitted to the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, 2017.

 Completed

Reports

Organizational factors influencing successful primary care and public health collaboration

Building on a scoping literature review, our study aimed to identify the influencing factors within these organizations that affect the ability of these health care sectors to collaborate with one another in the Canadian context. Relationships between these factors were also explored.

 Completed

Articles

Organizational factors influencing successful primary care and public health collaboration

Building on a scoping literature review, our study aimed to identify the influencing factors within these organizations that affect the ability of these health care sectors to collaborate with one another in the Canadian context. Relationships between these factors were also explored.

 Completed

Articles

Partners in research: building academic-practice partnerships to educate and mentor advanced practice nurses

Given the push for health care reform and quality improvement (QI), health care administrators are seeking new ways to utilize all dimensions of APN expertise, especially related to research and evidence-based practice. The purpose of the paper is to describe an academic-clinical partnership to improve patient care by strengthening the capacity of advanced practice nurses to integrate research and evidence-based practice activities into their day-to-day practice.

 Completed

Articles

Persona-scenario Exercise for Co-designing Primary Care Interventions

The persona-scenario exercise, an alternative to traditional strategies, originated from the field of human computer interface design. This project used this methodology adapted by Dr. Valaitis from participatory approaches used in eHealth. This article describes how persona-scenario exercises were applied in the codesign of the complex primary health care intervention TAPESTRY (Teams Advancing Patient Experiences: Strengthening Quality).

 Completed

Articles

Protocol for a program of research from the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit: Promoting optimal aging at home for older adults with multimorbidity

The goal of the Aging, Community and Health Research Unit (ACHRU) is to promote optimal aging at home for older adults with multimorbidity (≥2 chronic conditions) and to support their family/friend caregivers. This protocol paper reports the rationale and plan for this patient-oriented, cross-jurisdictional research program.

 Completed

Articles

Research Summary: Building Collaboration and the Social Environment for the Vanier Towers Community

Deliberative Dialogue Issue Brief. Hamilton, ON. 2019.

 Completed

Reports

Research Uptake Strategies: An Ontario think tank on strengthening collaboration between public and primary care

A full day think tank on strengthening collaboration between public health and primary care was held at Public Health Ontario in Toronto in 2012.

 Completed

Projects

Strengthening primary health care through primary care and public health collaboration: the influence of intrapersonal and interpersonal factors

The aim of this paper is to examine Canadian key informants’ perceptions of intrapersonal (within an individual) and interpersonal (among individuals) factors that influence successful primary care and public health collaboration

 Completed

Articles

Strengthening Primary Health Care Through Public Health and Primary Care Collaboration: Final Report

Final Report to Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF), 2012. ISBN 978-1-927565-02-5.

 Completed

Reports

Viewpoints About Collaboration Between Primary Care and Public Health in Canada

Although there is a global movement toward health system integration and collaboration, little is known about values, beliefs, and attitudes towards collaboration between stakeholders in public health (i.e. promotion, protection, and prevention with vulnerable groups and/or at the population level) and primary care (i.e., family practices, nurse-led clinics).

 Completed

Articles

What systemic factors contribute to collaboration between primary care and public health sectors? An interpretive descriptive study

The purpose of this paper is to report: 1) what systemic factors influence collaborations between PC and PH; and 2) how systemic factors interact and could influence collaboration.

 Completed

Articles

Students

Picture Name Degree Ruta's Role Thesis Topic More Info
Dr. Judy Burgess Dr. Judy Burgess Post-Doctoral Fellow Co-Supervisor A Tool to Evaluate Interprofessional Teams in Primary Care More Info.
Dr. Rebecca Ganann Dr. Rebecca Ganann Post-Doctoral Fellow Co-Supervisor Integrated knowledge exchange with knowledge users in community-based interventions involving extensive patient and caregiver engagement in the community More Info.
Leena Wu Chau  Leena Wu Chau MSc Co-Supervisor Primary care and public health collaboration: A population health approach in the delivery of mental health care More Info.
Rachael Haalboom Rachael Haalboom MScN Supervisor Implementation of public health vision screening follow up programs in schools More Info.
Jennifer Nicholl Jennifer Nicholl MScN Supervisor Community Nurse Networker: A Priority Neighbourhood Pilot Project More Info.
Jane Sparkes Jane Sparkes MS eHealth Supervisor A usability study of patients in their own homes as they set up a cardiac event loop record and Blackberry gateway for remote monitoring More Info.
Rebecca Spark Rebecca Spark MScN Supervisor An exploration of experiences of academics and decision-makers in a collaborative program of research More Info.
Mary Guise Mary Guise PhD Supervisor Computer-mediated-conferencing: support for preceptors of senior nursing students More Info.
Sandra Isaacs Sandra Isaacs PhD Supervisor How community-based services work together to address the primary health care needs of recent immigrant children More Info.
Erin Ziegler Erin Ziegler PhD Supervisor LGBT populations and access to primary care More Info.
Tracey Lovett Tracey Lovett MScN Supervisory Committee Member Exploring structures and processes that support collaborative practice amongst community health nurses who work with breastfeeding families More Info.