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Nova Scotia Association of Health Organizations

The Nova Scotia Association of Health Organizations (NSAHO) has been 'tugging on the flywheel' in their quest to make workplaces across the province healthier for current employees and more attractive for potential ones.

On January 24, 2008 all that tugging paid off, when the CEOs of Nova Scotia's nine District Health Authorities and the IWK Health Centre signed the Healthy Healthcare Leadership Charter, crystallizing their commitment to healthier work settings.

"Better work environments in health organizations have been a priority for NSAHO and their members for some time, and the work we have been doing over the past few years set the foundation to capitalize on the Action Strategy developed by the Quality Worklife Quality Healthcare Collaborative," says Carla Anglehart, Director of Organizational Development for NSAHO. "The Action Strategy validated what we have been trying to achieve, and signing the Charter is something our members take seriously."

Anglehart says NSAHO has also received strong buy-in from their members in the continuing care sector which includes nursing homes, home care, adult residential facilities, regional rehabilitation centres and other homes for special care.

"The Continuing Care Council has endorsed the Charter, and council members are out in the field spreading the word to other leaders in continuing care" she says. "A number of individual organizations within the sector have already signed the Charter and we expect more to come on board in the coming months."

Anglehart credits "coming at the issue from all angles" as the secret to NSAHO's success in building momentum for the healthy workplace movement in the province. To that end, the NSAHO began championing the issue back in 2000, when it established an Organizational Health Committee with representatives from across the provincial health system.

The Committee's aim was to urge its members to foster healthier workplaces to result in better outcomes and health delivery, as well as to enhance recruitment and retention efforts.

CEOs, Human Resource Managers and board chairs from across the health system were invited to participate in an Organizational Health Summit in 2005, along with government representatives, ensuring the message got out to all levels of decision-makers and system influencers.

"System leaders made a commitment to healthy workplaces at the Summit. Our members on the organizational health committee were working on an action plan when the QWQHC Action Strategy was published. We embraced the work of the Collaborative and made sure it was widely distributed whenever we had meetings, forums or summits," explains Anglehart.

"Bob Cook, NSAHO's CEO, also went to great lengths to ensure the urgent need for healthier workplaces was heard at the strategic level across the system, and took every opportunity to distribute the QWQHC's Conceptual Framework to demonstrate what needs to be done," she said.

Looking ahead, Anglehart says the Committee's next step is to develop a plan to help NSAHO's members implement the QWQHCC Strategy in ways that will address the differences between how the District Health Authorities and the Continuing Care Sector operate.

"We want to build on the momentum gained from signing the Charter and help organizations realize that signing is a crucial step on the road to healthier workplaces, not the end," says Anglehart. "We can help by working with health organizations to define what the Charter means to them and at the same time continue our dialogue with partners in the provincial Department of Health so we're also looking at the issue from a systems perspective."

Anglehart stresses that addressing the current recruitment and retention crisis is critical to long-term sustainability of the health system. "We have to find a mechanism for reinforcing to healthcare workers why they wanted a job in this field in the first place and a way to keep our talented people."

"Our goal is a seamless continuum of care where all work environments are healthy and provide quality services," says Anglehart.

Judging by their success to date and the commitment of leaders who are "keeping their eyes on the healthy healthcare horizon', it appears the future of Nova Scotia's health system is looking bright indeed.