Keyano College nursing students support successful transfer for Willow Square
July 9, 2021
For immediate release
Fort McMurray, AB
Keyano College nursing faculty and students are helping to evaluate the impact on the long-term care patients during their transition into the new continuing care centre (Willow Square).
The project, which was undertaken by several of the current nursing students at the College, have surveyed the patients and their families after they moved into Willow Square from the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre’s Continuing Care Unit earlier this month The aim of the project is to evaluate the impact of the relocation on the residents’ happiness, mental health, physical health, and overall well-being. The learnings will then be shared for other centres to benefit from the successes and challenges.
The hope is that this project will help to share best practice with others in the sector who are going through the relocation process to make the transition as smooth as possible and maintain excellent patient care throughout.
Registered Nurse and nursing faculty member Jennifer Courtney, has led this initiative, she said, “The students were so enthusiastic about this because it meant they got to work with the same residents from their clinical experience. They enjoy any opportunity to be hands-on and learn, especially with members of the community.
“Nursing is evolving, we’re starting to carve out a leadership role for nurses when it comes to patient care and so projects like this are invaluable. It teaches them vital communication and critical-thinking skills that they can apply when nursing but also share with the nursing community and become change agents for the sector.”
The next steps of the project, will see the students re-connect with the patients and their families for focus groups before following up at the six-month mark to evaluate the success of the transitions.
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Media contact:
Rebecca Jones
Communications Manager
C: 780.370.8835
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