Western-led research team receives $1.3M to evaluate educational bridging program for nurses
By Kim McCready
A multidisciplinary research team, led by Western’s School of Physical Therapy professor Denise Connelly has been awarded $1.3M from the Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario (WeRPN) to evaluate an educational bridging program targeting growth in the nursing workforce within Ontario’s long-term care (LTC) and home and community care (HCC) settings.
Denise Connelly, School of Physical Therapy
Nursing shortages in the LTC and HCC sectors began pre-pandemic and have only been exacerbated since.
“These sectors continue to struggle within the pre-existing nursing shortage, and acutely under the Coronovirus-19 pandemic, respiratory viruses and annual influenza conditions,” says Connelly. “Our research is focused on the workforce by evaluating and supporting a new program led by the WeRPN to recruit 4000 new nurses into these two sectors by 2025.”
WeRPN has partnered with the Ontario Ministries of Health and Long-Term Care to deliver the Bridging Educational Grant in Nursing (BEGIN) program and is part of the Ontario Government’s commitment to recruit nurses to the LTC and HCC sectors. To ensure different perspectives and experiences are brought to the table, the research team includes a diverse group of academics, educators, professional associations, employers, nursing students and health care professionals from collaborating academic institutions across Ontario.
The three-year evaluation will investigate the impact of the BEGIN program on the Registered Practical Nursing (RPN) and Registered Nursing (RN) workforce, by focusing the analysis on the education of Personal Support Workers (PSWs) bridging to RPNs and RPNs bridging to RNs, and retention of these new nurses in the LTC and HCC sectors.
"We anticipate our findings will offer high-quality, compelling, real-time, and actionable evidence to inform resource development by the WeRPN professional nursing association and technical reports at the provincial level."
Several research studies will be undertaken to address the educational experiences of the BEGIN participants to gather perceptions about the BEGIN Program from participant students and key stakeholders. Students’ and recent graduates’ perceptions of their educational training and preparation and the working environment will be explored along with workforce retention – examining whether goals were met for the WeRPN BEGIN team, employers, and students.
The project results will address the two primary expectations of the BEGIN Program: fostering a culture of excellence to make the LTC and HCC sectors of choice for the nursing profession and improving the retention of nurses in these sectors.
“We anticipate our findings will offer high-quality, compelling, real-time, and actionable evidence to inform resource development by the WeRPN professional nursing association and technical reports at the provincial level,” says Connelly. “The findings will provide evidence to inform LTC and HCC organizational orientation/onboarding practices and may influence continuing education opportunities in the area of geriatric nursing.”
The research team includes Western Physical Therapy Research Scientist Nicole Guitar, Postdoctoral Associates Kristin Prentice, Sarah Janssen, and Melissa Hay, Nursing professors Anna Garnett and Victoria Smye and Epidemiology and Biostatistics professor Shehzad Ali.
