Accessibility and System Navigation
The theme - System Navigation - refers to an individual or a team engaging in activities such as: facilitating access and removing barriers to health-related programs and services for patients/families and caregivers; facilitating continuity of care; and effective and efficient use of the health care system for patients/families, caregivers and practitioners.
Reference: The Change Foundation. (2013). Health System Navigators: Band-Aid or Cure? A Primer with reflections from the Change Foundation's PANORAMA Panel. Toronto, ON: The Change Foundation
Research Funding
An Inter-provincial comparison of innovative programs that help individuals and families affected by life-limiting chronic illnesses navigate end-of-life.
Purpose: To identify and compare innovative community-based navigation programs across Canada. TEAM: Warner, G., Urquhart, R., Pfaff, K., Stajduhar, K., Tschupruk, C., Dolovich, L., Garland Baird,...
Active
2018-2020
Co-InvestigatorContributing 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 InvestigatorExploring the Use of Personal Network Mapping as a Component of the TAPESTRY Program
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Completed
2014-2016
Primary InvestigatorTAPESTRY: 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-InvestigatorEvaluation of a Community Nurse Navigator in a Priority Hamilton Neighbourhood
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Completed
2013-2015
Primary InvestigatorHome & 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-InvestigatorScholarly Work
A Canadian application of EUGENIE – a web-based application to support high older adult users of emergency rooms to access community health and social services assisted by trained primary health care volunteers
EU-GENIE is an online tool that volunteers can use with clients. It can help them describe their support network and can link them to relevant local community resources that are tailored to the interests of the client.
Completed
ProjectsA 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
ArticlesAdvanced Practice Nursing: A Strategy for Achieving Universal Health Coverage and Universal Access to Health
This paper examines advanced practice nursing (APN) roles internationally to inform role development in Latin America and the Caribbean to support universal health coverage and universal access to health.
Completed
ArticlesAn 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
ArticlesBrokering 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
ArticlesCase management in primary care for frequent users of healthcare services with chronic diseases and complex care needs: An implementation and realist evaluations protocol
The three specific objectives of this study are to: (1) identify the facilitators and barriers of CM implementation in primary care clinics across Canada; (2) explain and understand the relationships between the actors, contextual factors, mechanisms and outcomes of the CM intervention; (3) identify the next steps towards CM spread in primary care across Canada.
Completed
ArticlesCompetence 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
ArticlesExploration of volunteers as health connectors within a multicomponent primary care‐based program supporting self‐management of diabetes and hypertension
This study describes the effectiveness, feasibility and effects of a volunteer program evaluation framework in primary care.
Completed
ArticlesImplementation 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
ArticlesInvited Member of the Working Group for the Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-term Care Primary Health Care Planning Group: Working Group 2: Strengthening Primary Care Access
Invited Working Group Member: Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-term Care Primary Health Care Planning Group: Working Group 2: Strengthening Primary Care Access. The report was completed August 2011.
Completed
CommitteesNavigation delivery models and roles of navigators in primary care: a scoping literature review
We conducted a scoping literature review following established methods to explore the existing evidence on system navigation in primary care. To be included, studies had to be published in English between 1990 and 2013, and include a navigator or navigation process in a primary care setting that involves the community- based social services beyond the health care system. We make an important contribution to the literature by highlighting navigation models that address both health and social service navigation. T
Completed
ArticlesOptimizing Registered Nurse Roles in the Delivery of Cancer Survivorship Care within Primary Care Settings
To address increasing pressures for cancer survivorship care, provincial cancer agencies have introduced new models of post-treatment follow-up involving earlier transition of cancer survivors back to primary care (PC) providers. It is unknown how nurses in PC settings have responded to this practice change. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine registered nurses' (RNs) perspectives of the strengths, gaps, barriers and opportunities for optimizing nursing roles in the delivery of cancer survivorship care within PC settings.
Completed
ArticlesProtocol 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
ArticlesStudents
Picture | Name | Degree | Ruta's Role | Thesis Topic | More Info |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lisa De Panfilis | MSc Nursing student | Supervisor | Youth Access to Mental Health Services in Primary Care | More Info. | |
Jennifer Nicholl | MScN | Supervisor | Community Nurse Networker: A Priority Neighbourhood Pilot Project | More Info. | |
Kristina Chang | MScN | Supervisory Committee Member | Patient engagement in community-based intervention research | More Info. | |
Maneet Chahal | MScN | Supervisory Committee Member | Access to mental health services for the South Asian population in Peel Region | More Info. | |
Janice Feather | MScN | Supervisory Committee Member | A Narrative Exploration of a Nurse Navigator Role in Primary Care | More Info. |