About QWQHC

About Us

Who we are

The Quality Worklife - Quality Healthcare Collaborative (QWQHC) is a coalition of twelve national healthcare organizations working together to create healthier workplaces and to ultimately improve patient/client and system outcomes.

The Collaborative defines a healthy healthcare workplace as: a work setting that takes a strategic and comprehensive approach to providing the physical, cultural, psychosocial and work/job design conditions that maximize health and wellbeing of healthcare providers, quality of patient outcomes and organizational performance. (Adapted from the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario)

Background

The QWQHC was formed in 2005, in an environment fraught with challenges to health professional retention and recruitment as well as heightened public expectations for quality and safety. These issues, combined with increasing evidence of the link between quality of worklife and patient/client outcomes, led the National Partner organizations to seize this opportunity to enhance pan-Canadian knowledge transfer and disseminate strategies known to improve quality of worklife in healthcare settings.

With financial and in-kind support from the National Partners and funding from Health Canada, and in consultation with over 45 worklife leading experts, the QWQHC developed an evidenced-informed pan-Canadian action strategy entitled Within Our Grasp: A Healthy Workplace Action Strategy for Success and Sustainability in Canada's Healthcare System. This document provides organization and system leaders with ideas to improve the health of healthcare workplaces. To date, it has been broadly disseminated and frequently referenced across the country.

Priority Objectives

The QWQHC aspires to drive improvements in the quality of worklife by building system-wide sustainable engagement, action, accountability, and knowledge exchange.

The QWQHC continues to champion and support the implementation of its action strategy through the following priority objectives:

To increase the capacity of health service organizations to implement evidence-informed quality of worklife practices.
To increase awareness, commitment, and engagement of leaders in publicly funded health organizations and federal, provincial or territorial governments with regard to healthier workplaces in healthcare.
To support systematic and consistent measuring and reporting on quality of worklife in healthcare across the country.
To promote ongoing sustainability and relevance of a collaborative action approach to improving quality of worklife in healthcare.

Given its pan-Canadian placement, the Collaborative sees its role as a facilitator of change, with activities largely focused on knowledge exchange and network development, and ultimately building system-wide capacity at a local level.