The following is quoted from the report written following our annual Endowment Fund event held virtually in November 2020. It is a powerful reminder of how our funds are spent in support of nurses and the archives at SickKids:
SPECIALIZED NURSING PROJECTS
Alumnae Association of the School of Nursing Endowment
Fund is designed to enhance nursing at SickKids through
professional development, improvement projects and
initiatives, and innovation with grants for projects that will
continue to improve care.
THE ARCHIVES
Funding through the endowment also supports the hospital’s
archives, which collects, preserves and celebrates the history
of nursing at SickKids. This includes a collection of over 10,000
nursing-related archive materials including displays for
several events including Nursing Week, and 50th Anniversary
Luncheons for all classes.
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Introducing Our Endowment Fund winners for 2020, chosen in November 2019.
Making SickKids Safer – Nurses Mollie Lavigne, Shagan Aujla, and Andrea Boysen, noticed a gap in the data concerning patient safety. The ‘Caring Safely’ program – a robust, hospital-wide initiative launched in 2015 with the goal of improving patient safety focused almost entirely on serious safety events, the ones with the most potential for harm. No one was tracking the near misses, the incidents that could have caused harm if mitigation strategies had not been in place. Recognizing this provided an opportunity to make the hospital even safer. With the help of the Endowment Fund grant the Apparent Cause Analysis program was launched to study less severe safety events. Read more in the Impact Report below.
Fighting Nurse Burnout – Our second Endowment Fund winner was Kelly McNaughton, Manager of the Peer Support Program and a PhD student studying the issue of nurse burnout. Kelly says “It’s about contributing factors like scheduling and bullying. It’s about shift work, organizational factors, and team morale.” She approached Bonnie Fleming-Caroll, Associate Chief of Nursing, with an idea…holding wellness workshops for new nurses preparing them for the work ahead. To help spouses and families of nurses understand the psychological toll of the job, a family workshop was also created. The pilot program is still ongoing but feedback has been very positive. Read more in the Impact Report through the link below.
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Remembering the Past….The Alumnae Endowment Fund also supports the Archives at SickKids and with our help David Wencer was able to purchase a laptop to help maintain our extensive collection. He is busy keeping history alive! See the Impact Report for a look ahead.
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Creation of a Safety Officer Role – This year’s winners are Caitlin Ross and Amanda Cooney, nurses in the Emergency Department. With the Dangers of COVID 19 ever present, especially in the ED, where patients are assessed, intubated, or require resuscitation the danger of infection is ever present. Caitlin and Amanda are creating a new Safety Officer role. Using the most up-to-date guidelines, this Safety Officer will advise ED staff on everything from PPE to best practices for infection control. They will report back to the Alumnae in November 2021.
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Click here to view the Impact Report and Alumnae Association Endowment Fund Summary.