Workshops

Primary health care (PHC) is foundational to achieving high-performing, equitable health systems in Canada. However, with over 6.5 million people across Canada without access to a primary care provider, the health system is struggling to meet the most basic health needs of many Canadians. Coupled with additional challenges including fragmented and incomplete data and data systems, siloed and uncoordinated infrastructure, financial impediments and persistent health workforce shortages, the system is increasingly unable to deliver timely, equitable, accessible primary health care.

In response to these pressing challenges, CIHR is developing a new primary health care research and innovation strategy, PRIME, Primary Health Care Reimagined through Impact, Mobilization and Engagement. Grounded in the OurCare standard and aligned to the Quintuple Aim, PRIME’s vision is to ensure “health, wellbeing and prosperity for all people across Canada through accessible, timely, high-quality primary health care”.

As part of the PRIME strategy, CIHR is partnering with the Canadian Primary Care Research Consortium (CPCRC) and Healthcare Excellence Canada (HEC) to engage interest holders to better understand the challenges confronting PHC and the many solutions being implemented or explored across the country. Despite robust primary health care assets across the country (e.g., data, research, practice-based learning networks) and ongoing innovation, implementation and evidence gaps persist, making it difficult to scale and spread innovative solutions. As such, CIHR, CPCRC and HEC are consulting on the development of a PHC Asset Map and PHC Evidence and Gap Map (EGM). An asset map captures an inventory of Canada’s resources, strengths, and capacities in primary health care. An EGM provides a visual and systematic overview of available evidence, highlighting where knowledge is strong and where gaps remain. Developing a PHC Asset Map and EGM framework will provide a structured approach to synthesize and prioritize evidence to guide implementation, research, innovation and policy decisions.

1. Review and inform a preliminary PHC Asset Map
2. Understand the purpose and structure of Evidence and Gap Maps and how they support evidence-informed decision-making for PHC
3. Co-develop a draft framework identifying key interventions and outcome domains relevant to PHC in Canada
4. Align the framework’s design and content with the Quintuple Aim to ensure comprehensiveness and system relevance

Researchers, health providers/clinicians, policy makers, decision makers, patient partners, and trainees.

• Welcome & introductions
• Background/context on Asset Maps and EGMs and outline of plan for workshop
• Breakout groups will discuss EGM framework (key interventions and outcomes that should be included in the map and consider alignment to Quintuple Aim) and potential resources/literature to include in the synthesis. Asset map will be posted at tables for groups to add to it in real-time.
• Report back from breakout groups
• Final reflections and feedback
• Key reflections from facilitators and workshop wrap up

Jessica Nadigel, Meghan McMahon, Sabrina Wong, Onil Bhattacharyya, Colleen Ferris and Rick Glazier

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) were developed to capture patients' perspectives on their health, quality of life, and treatment outcomes. While PROMs are increasingly used at the micro (clinical care), meso (patient panel or clinic), and macro (provincial) levels, their implementation varies and patient engagement in their design and use remains inconsistent. This workshop will provide an interactive space for patients and researchers to explore the value of PROMs from all perspectives, discuss challenges and opportunities for their implementation and identify actionable strategies to enhance patient involvement, experience and outcomes. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of PROMs and strategies to support their meaningful integration into patient-oriented research and practice.

1. Increase understanding of patient-reported outcome measures across level of care (micro/meso/macro)
2. Critically reflect on patient-reported outcome measures from patient perspectives
3. Identify actionable strategies to enhance meaningful implementation of patient-reported outcome measures

Patients, students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers/academics, clinician scientists, health system leaders, policy makers.

1. Introductions and brief overview of PROMs, explaining their origins and current applications at different levels of the healthcare system. A patient-led discussion will highlight lived experiences, including how PROMs impact care, where they succeed and where gaps remain.
2. Present the co-developed APERSU PROMs Tip Sheet: a practical tool to help increase awareness and knowledge of PROMs through patient and community groups.
3. Hands-on activity, completing 1 or 2 PROMs to experience their structure, usability and potential limitations firsthand.
4. Facilitated discussion about the tools themselves and the involvement of patients in the development and implementation practices. We will identify barriers and facilitators to their adoption and any ‘killer assumptions’ that may hinder effective implementation. We will generate a list of potential implementation strategies together.
5. To conclude, we will explore why PROMs matter to patients, how patient partners can play an active role in shaping their use, and what impact PROMs and patient engagement can have on research and healthcare decision-making.

Allison Soprovich, Alberta PROMs and EQ-5D Research and Support Unit (APERSU) and Kim Giroux, Alberta PROMs and EQ-5D Research and Support Unit (APERSU) Patient Engagement Network

This workshop will examine why the Quintuple Aim is a framework designed for a complicated system, rather than healthcare which is complex, not just complicated. Frameworks for systems thinking will be introduced and participants will have an opportunity to discuss how they are relevant to their own work and spheres of influence. Ideas for shifting from an outcomes-based framework like the Quintuple Aim to frameworks which focus on learning rather than accountability and relationships rather than transactions will be introduced.

• Understand the difference between “complex” and “complicated” systems.
• Learn why approaches designed for complicated problems are not helpful in complex systems.
• Identify solutions that are better suited for the complexity of healthcare systems.

Anyone interested in systems thinking approaches to addressing healthcare challenges.

The facilitator will introduce systems thinking and a series of frameworks that can be applied by participants to the complex challenges they face. The workshop will be interactive, and participants will be asked to engage in short table discussions that enable application with the core ideas presented.

This session will be facilitated by Diane Finegood, Professor and Fellow in the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. Dr Finegood has held numerous leadership positions including as an inaugural Scientific Director for CIHR, President and CEO of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and Executive Director of the Canadian Health Services and Policy Research Alliance. Her current focus is the application of systems thinking in complexity.

This workshop will demonstrate how clinics can advance the Quintuple Aim through more effective integration of RNs and LPNs in primary care. Nursing roles are one of the most immediate and scalable levers to improve patient experience, expand access, and enhance population health, yet they remain inconsistently implemented across Canada. Drawing on insights from the Nursing Initiatives for Primary Care program, the session highlights how structured onboarding, role clarity, and nurse-led workflows contribute to better patient outcomes, smoother clinic operations, and more equitable care.

The workshop also speaks to the policy challenges raised by the conference: slowing cost growth, strengthening the workforce, and addressing inequities. Nurse-led models redistribute work to the most appropriate team member, reduce pressure on physicians & nurse practitioners, and improve continuity, while supporting retention and satisfaction among nurses themselves. By pairing data with practical implementation strategies, this workshop offers participants actionable ways to accelerate progress toward the Quintuple Aim in their own clinics.

Participants will be able to:

1. Identify high-impact RN and LPN activities that improve patient experience, equity, and care continuity in primary care.
2. Understand common barriers and system enablers in integrating nurses into team-based care (e.g., scope clarity, workflow design, continuing education).
3. Apply a practical design framework to map where nursing roles add the most value along the patient journey.
4. Co-create prototypes for RN and LPN led care processes that improve access and patient experience while relieving pressure on physicians and nurse practitioners
5. Leave with actionable tools to introduce, strengthen, or scale team-based nursing roles in their own settings.

Primary care leaders and managers (CHCs, family practices, PCNs, Indigenous health organizations); policymakers working on team-based care, access, and workforce planning; quality improvement and transformation teams; educators and researchers interested in primary care nursing roles; interprofessional clinicians (NPs, physicians, social workers, MOAs, allied health). No prior knowledge of primary care nursing roles is required.

• Welcome & Context Setting
• Evidence Snapshot: The Case for RNs and LPNs in Primary Care
• Mapping the Patient Journey (Small-Group Activity)
• Designing High-Impact Nursing Workflows
• Implementing & Sustaining Change
• Closing Reflection & Takeaway Tools

Angela Wignall, RN, BSN, BA, MA, PhD(c) - CEO
Patti Telford RN, BScN, MHS – Provincial Director
Nursing Initiatives for Primary Care
Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of BC

The healthcare system includes many diverse partners that support health and well-being, such as policy-makers, academics, clinicians, administrators, community organizations, Indigenous communities, and the public at large. With so many potential partners, it can be useful to conceptualize the healthcare system more organically, such as an ecosystem with inter-woven relations and cross-sector connections (i.e., education, economics) that intensify and lessen over time. How can we rethink and reshape sustainable partnerships in our healthcare ecosystem?

We are witnessing a critical time for healthcare in Canada. A time of real and perceived resource scarcity (e.g., health professionals, funding, accessibility, public trust, etc.) within the system - the need for, and value of robust, sustainable partnerships and shared accountability, is never more critical and yet can seem just out of reach.

Drawing from diverse experiences and scholarly interests of participants together we will explore new ways to approach the spectrum of healthcare partnerships (e.g., interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, intersectoral, interprofessional, inter-ministerial, interagency, etc.). We need new ways to conceptualize partnerships. Through dialogue we will refocus our collective minds towards new ways to question legitimacy, to innovate, to develop shared accountability and to build trust in our partnerships.

• To articulate what sustainable partnerships mean in healthcare; including who the partners are and other concepts, metaphors, or tools that would support rethinking sustainable partnerships in healthcare.
• To identify ways we can create trust and shared accountabilities within our healthcare partnership; including what those shared accountabilities could be and what success could look like.

Researchers, policy makers, decision-makers, clinicians, patient partners, and students.

Welcome and Land Acknowledgements – Introduction to the facilitator
1. Connections and Gratitude – Introductions and connection with those at the tables
2. Healthcare as an ecosystem – Facilitator to present the concept of healthcare as an ecosystem to anchor the workshop and discussions. Why partnerships? Why now?
3. Rethinking – Working in small groups, participants will be asked prompting questions to rethink partnerships. Groups will be asked to capture their discussion on flipchart paper and will be asked to share back in large group.
4. Reshaping – There will be three stations. Participants will move between each flipchart to answer posted questions.
5. Close out – Facilitator to describe next steps and to acknowledge group participation and wisdom in rethinking and reshaping sustainable partnerships in healthcare. Participants will be asked for a one-word check-out on new possibilities for partnerships in healthcare.

Monique Walsh, Jim Pattison Centre for Health Systems Learning + Innovation