Health Professional Education Initiatives and Programs
I have had the opportunity to lead and support a variety of education programs and initiatives, aimed at increasing knowledge, skills and capacity of health care providers. I provide a couple of examples below as well as my specific contributions to each. See also my role in developing, implementing and evaluating the BC ECHO on Substance Use.
Interdisciplinary Addiction Fellowship Program
The BCCSU Interdisciplinary Addiction Fellowship Program is an academic and clinically focused training program, consisting of immersive inpatient and outpatient clinical rotations, academic learning blocks and research and leadership requirements.
From 2017-2019, as Associate Director of the addiction nursing fellowship stream, I worked closely with the director and program team to ensure a smooth academic year for nursing fellows, co-chaired the nursing stream academic committee, provided mentorship to nursing fellows regarding their research projects and supported the development of the nurse practitioner stream of the program.
Most recently, in my role as Interim Clinical Director at BCCSU, I provided leadership and support to this program, including across medicine, nursing, nurse practitioner, social work and pharmacy streams.
More information about this program can be found here.
Online Addiction Nursing Training Program
In 2017, I led the development of a provincial online nursing education program, in collaboration with UBC School of Nursing and accredited by the Canadian Nurses Association. This nursing stream accompanies the broader Addiction Care and Treatment Online Course – a free and accessible training program hosted by UBC Continuing Professional Development. This course provides foundational information about a range of substance use disorders, available treatments and harm reduction approaches.
Examples of key contributions that facilitated a successful launch:
I developed and updated work plans and budgets; identified key content areas for nursing professionals and led content creation across 5 interactive course modules
I recruited nursing professionals from an array of settings (education, academic, clinical) with substance use experience and expertise to populate an education committee and sub-committees for each course module
I was responsible for stewarding the committee and sub-committee processes to develop course outlines and create content, including knowledge testing questions
I supported the external review process and collaboration with course designers at UBC regarding interactive elements of the modules.
In collaboration with the UBC School of Nursing, I led our initial accreditation process with the Canadian Nurses Association.
This free and accessible training program can be found here.