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Best practice in long-term care more than just education, expert says [This article appears here in its original form and with the permission of www.oltca.com] By Camille Jensen, Axiom News June 2009- Nadine Janes says her recent research is highlighting how there is more to promoting best practices in long-term care than just education. Janes, the manager of professional practice and an advanced practice nurse at West Park Health Care Centre, has been studying how front-line caregivers use best practice knowledge in long-term care settings. While education is important, Janes says there are other factors that play an important role in ensuring best practices are utilized by front-line staff members. “Certainly results affirms that there is a lot that goes on between knowledge and action that has very little to do with a lack of knowledge and needing education,” says Janes. “The link between knowledge and action is much more complex . . . and we need to better understand what goes on between knowledge and action so that we can really help promote better practice.” Factors that may serve to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice include understanding the social and political context of the work environment. Janes says social relations, such as staff members feeling undervalued or disempowered, can impact their ability to do what is best for residents. Janes emphasizes the importance of leadership in helping mitigate any relational problems that can occur and recommends developing clinical leaders who are also skilled facilitators that will be able to work with staff to advance better practice. “First and foremost, everyone needs to hear what the workers have to say,” says Janes. “I spend a phenomenal amount of time building relationships, managing emotions and trying to flatten hierarchies and those things are paramount to my success.” This subject area has been of immense interest to Janes, stemming from 20 years of working in gerontology and long-term care and has formed the basis for her PhD and ongoing research. Through her research, Janes says she is looking to develop a methodology to promote best practices that stems from an approach widely used in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. “It's an emancipatory and participatory approach to changing a culture that supports workers to do what they know is best,” she says. Janes presented these ideas at a presentation entitled Facilitating Best Aged Care Practice: A View from the Point of Care at the Annual National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly (NICE) Knowledge Exchange May 20 and 21 in Toronto. |