Shared on behalf of Bonnie Nicholas, Manager PFCC, Patient Experience, Engagement & Advocacy
Due to the discontinuation of COVID-19 response funding from the Ministry of Health, the Care Partner Liaison positions that have served the Emergency Department and in-patient areas in our Hospital will no longer be available as of April 1, 2023.
Please notify your staff and remove any Care Partner Liaison contact information from your department. Should patients or their families have any Essential Care Partner (ECP) or Care Partner (CP) issues or concerns, please direct them to contact the Patient Advocate by calling 684-6211.
On behalf of Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and specifically PFCC, we would like to thank our Care Partner Liaison staff for their years of hard work and commitment to our patients and their families throughout the pandemic. We wish them well in their future roles.
March is Pharmacy Appreciation Month. Let’s all acknowledge and recognize the contributions pharmacy professionals make in the delivery of health care. The role of pharmacy professionals has expanded throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and has been a key part of our nationwide public health efforts to screen, test and vaccinate Canadians. Pharmacies have remained open and accessible to their patients, and pharmacy teams have showed up each day ready to care for, support, educate and guide their communities through the many challenges that we have faced. Our Hospital is currently recruiting three pharmacy positions: Clinical Pharmacist, Pharmacist (0.7FTE), and a full time Pharmacist. For more information, please reach out to Human Resources at human.resources@tbh.net.
The Board of Directors invites interested Northwestern Ontario residents to consider serving as members of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre Board of Directors or its Board Committees. Successful candidates are expected to participate actively in governance activities for a three-year term.
As a skills-based Board, we are seeking to fill approximately three vacancies with interested volunteers who:
are willing to promote our Vision of “Exceptional care for every patient, every time”, and our Strategic Directions;
commit to advocating for our Mission as a strong regional specialized academic acute Health Sciences Centre;
share the Hospital’s values of Diversity, Compassion, Excellence, Innovation and Accountability;
demonstrate teamwork, community leadership, multicultural awareness, financial acumen and is representative of the population we serve;
commit the time necessary to be productive Board or Board Committee members.
Applicants who are Francophone, have previous governance experience, or possess an Accounting designation, are encouraged to apply.
Interested candidates should forward a resume and letter of interest by Friday, March 31, 2023 to:
Chair, Governance and Nominating Committee
c/o President’s Office Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre 980 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, ON, P7B 6V4 TBRHSC.BoardChair@tbh.net
Le conseil d’administration du Centre régional des sciences de la santé de Thunder Bay invite les résidents intéressés du Nord-Ouest de l’Ontario à en devenir membres ou à siéger à ses comités. Il s’attend à ce que les personnes retenues participent aux activités de gouvernance tout au cours de leur mandat de trois ans.
Le conseil d’administration attache une grande importance aux compétences. Il souhaite pourvoir environ trois postes bénévoles. Pour ce faire, il cherche des personnes qui:
feront la promotion de notre orientation stratégique et de notre vision, qui consiste à prodiguer des soins de qualité exceptionnelle à tous les patients en tout temps;
nous aideront à nous acquitter de notre mission en tant que centre universitaire régional dynamique offrant des soins actifs et spécialisés;
partagent les valeurs de l’hôpital, soit la diversité, la compassion, l’excellence, l’innovation et la reddition de comptes;
savent travailler en équipe, sont des chefs de file dans la communauté, sont sensibles aux enjeux multiculturels, possèdent des connaissances financières et sont représentatives de la population que nous servons;
consacreront le temps nécessaire aux travaux du conseil d’administration ou de ses comités afin d’en être des membres productifs.
Nous encourageons les francophones, les personnes ayant de l’expérience en gouvernance et celles ayant un titre de compétence en comptabilité à poser leur candidature.
Les personnes intéressées doivent envoyer leur curriculum vitae et une lettre de présentation d’ici le vendredi 31 mars 2023 au:
Président du comité de la gouvernance et des nominations
a/s du Bureau du président Centre régional des sciences de la santé de Thunder Bay 980, chemin Oliver, Thunder Bay ON P7B 6V4 TBRHSC.BoardChair@tbh.net
Did you know that studies have shown that dietary changes may play a significant role in improving mental health conditions? Mental health and nutrition are often discussed separately, but they have many connections to one another.
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit in collaboration with mental health and nutrition professionals across Canada have developed a free online course on mental health and nutrition.
Who: This course is available to mental health professionals across Canada who would like to learn more about the role that nutrition plays in improving the mental wellbeing of their clients.
What: This is a self-led online course that takes approximately 1.5 hours to complete. Participants will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion from the Thunder Bay District Health Unit.
Shared on behalf of Caroline Fanti, Director, Regional Surgical Services
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Science Centre Regional Surgical Services program is excited to launch a set of educational videos for patients. These videos are available for all surgery patients and their families to watch from any internet-connected device.
There are currently 10 videos. The video topics include:
Consenting for surgery
Pre-anesthetic appointment
General pre-op instructions
Common misconceptions
How to prepare your home
Outpatient vs inpatient teaching
The videos have been embedded into the websites at each of the four regional surgical sites. You can view at https://bit.ly/TBRHSC-Surgery or by scanning the QR code with your phone.
The videos can be viewed with subtitles in multiple languages. We are encouraging patients to send the videos to their family members and care partners as well. At the end of each video, there are survey questions and digital teach-backs to support comprehension. Our goal is to standardize and scale the messaging to patients so we can improve their surgical outcomes and experience.
We are sharing the videos with patients and their families using posters, QR codes on site and the SeamlessMD app.
Please feel free to direct patients and families to the webpage as appropriate. You can reach out to the Communications team at raiili.pellizzari@tbh.net for any materials you may need.
Thank you so much and if you have any questions or concerns, or would like to provide feedback, you can reach me at caroline.fanti@tbh.net, or extension 6984.
Even though Ed Lauzon is now retired, the long-time IT professional and manager at the Ontario Ministry of Health still has a strong interest in ensuring high-quality care. He knows as much as anyone that some of the “extras” that can make such a difference in patients’ and families’ lives just aren’t in the budget. So Ed asked his niece Michelle Lauzon, a nurse in the NICU at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, if there were any improvements she and her co-workers could make with a donation.
“I said ‘Yes!’ right away,” Michelle said. “I was very excited about it.”
Jennifer Somera, NICU & Maternity Centre Manager, was amazed and grateful for the generous gift.
“I can share that my team gives me a great wishlist,” Jennifer said. “Unfortunately, we don’t always have the funds to purchase everything on that list. So to get this surprise gift – we were able to get many of the things from that list to help us provide higher level of care in our NICU.”
“This is a great example of an individual in the community wanting to make a difference in the quality of care for our NICU patients and families,” Jennifer said.
Ed’s only stipulation for the donation: that the NICU nurses decide how to spend the money.
“It was important to my uncle that the nurses choose the items. He always says that the people on the frontlines are the ones who know what’s needed,” Michelle said.
All the NICU nurses helped choose the items on the list – though with over 30 nurses on staff, deciding on the final list was difficult, Michelle said.
One of the “extras” the NICU nurses purchased with the donation was a Polaroid Instant Camera. That might sound strange in this digital age, but it’s exactly because we are digital that a Polaroid picture means so much to families.
“We take pictures with our phone, but we don’t always print them anymore,” Michelle said. Besides, not everyone has a phone to take pictures with. “The Polaroid is a concrete keepsake that parents can take with them and add to their baby book.”
She said that in the three weeks since getting the camera, they’ve mostly taken pictures on discharge day. But the NICU nurses are also talking about using it in other ways, such as taking a picture every week to show a pre-term infant’s growth.
“It’s hard to see your baby in the NICU,” Michelle said. The camera provides another way for the nurses to support families, which is important too. “We want to try to give them a happy memory during one of the most difficult time in their lives. That’s a big thing for me for sure.”
Other items purchased included a memory board, nine bottle warmers – almost one for each of the 14 NICU beds – and several different kinds of positioners with washable covers to help keep baby comfortable.
“You can put them on their stomachs safely, under their legs, and so on,” Michelle said. “You can also make boundaries around babies so they feel safer, kind of like they were still inside Mum. That’s important with premature babies especially because they shouldn’t be out yet.”
Her uncle is very happy with what the nurses decided, Michelle said.
“He was especially happy with the milestone board and the camera,” she said. “He’s a photographer, so I knew he’d appreciate that.”
“We’ve only had these items for a few weeks, but it’s made a huge difference in the way we can provide care.”
Left to right: NICU Nurses Trisha Smith, Kaitlyn Krywy, Lindsay Inkila, Allison Leclerc and Michelle Lauzon with all of the items purchased thanks to Ed Lauzon’s generous donation.
