The RM-NET team makes a habit of being involved in many activities across BC and Canada as well as creating our own opportunities for research collaborations. We encourage you to check this page regularly to learn about upcoming events and opportunities.
(June 2008)
This past spring has been a whirlwind at the Centre for Rural Health Research. In early May, we collaborated with the BC Perinatal Health Program to host a working symposium on Best Practices in Rural Maternity Service Outcomes Reporting. It was a great success and provided researchers, administrators, and rural care providers with the opportunity to discuss data collection schemes for rural maternal and newborn health outcomes. The proceedings for this event are in the final stages of editing and will be added to our Resources section shortly.
During May and early June, we traveled to Trail, BC to gather data for our study of Interprofessional Collaboration in rural communities. It was an enlightening experience and provided us with an on the ground understanding of the maternity care experiences of physicians, administrators, and birthing women in the Trail catchment. This project will inform discussion at the Invitational Rural Midwifery Symposium hosted by the Centre for Rural Health Research, taking place June 19-20th in Vancouver.
We also said farewell to our beloved research assistant Reyna Ramolete Hayashi. She contributed a great deal of spirit and joy to our research office and played a key role in the data collection for our Logic Model Survey. Reyna is now traveling in Central America and volunteering with a non-profit social housing organization before returning to the west coast to begin her full scholarship as a Scholar for Justice at Seattle University School of Law.
We look forward to a summer of further field work and will be welcoming a number of new summer students to the office.
(February 2008)
It is hard to believe that January is over and we are one month into 2008. The new year has been a busy and full of travel at the Centre for Rural Health Research. The team went on a productive retreat to Saltspring Island to map out the upcoming months of fieldwork, conferences, symposia, and research opportunities. We have been to meetings in Trail and Rossland, BC for our interprofessional collaboration research project. And to top it all off, we attended the first ever Canadian Continuing Medical Education (CME) event for General Practitioner Surgeons in Banff, Alberta. Overall, our travel ventures have proven extremely valuable to the growth and success of our research program!
(December 2007)
With the onset of the holiday season, our team has been balancing festivities with a busy research schedule, keeping our eyes on the activities that will await us upon our return to the office after a brief Christmas break. We have been steadily planning for field work that will take us traveling across the province, prepping our research for upcoming conferences, and submitting applications for new projects. The new year promises to be busy indeed!
Although we’re excited to be moving forward with our ever expanding research team, at the beginning of this month we had to say goodbye to Cynthia Lin-Hsieh, who has moved onwards and upwards to a position as Grants Facilitator with the Department of Occupational Science and Therapy at UBC. We all wish Cynthia the best of luck and success and will miss her very much!
(November 2007)
October was yet another crazy month for the RMNET team, as we participated in two major conferences (Family Medicine Forum, Winnipeg, Manitoba; NAPCRG, Vancouver, BC), and we submitted a 3-year Partnership Grant to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. With the year quickly drawing to an end, we are ever aware of the growing mountain of work that still needs to be done.
The beginning of November saw the reseach team welcome our co-investigators and collaborators to our annual Co-Investigator's Symposium at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver. This meeting gave the team a chance to connect with all those that have worked closely with us these past few years, and an opportunity for our extended team members to present their research to policy and decision-makers for who we have established a relationship. In attendance were Health Authority representatives from Vancouver Coastal, Northern, Interior, and Vancouver Island, as well as from the Ministry of Health, the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, and the Department of Family Practice. The day was a lively mixture of discussions and research presentations on topics ranging from the use of GIS technology in health services planning to ways in which to support GP Surgery. We were also delighted to have three of our recent seed grant applicants present on their work to offer a community perspective. Overall, the day was a tremendous success for re-connecting with the extended team, and for informing policy and decision-makers of our research to ensure we are meeting their planning needs.
We look forward to our next annual meeting. Thank you to everyone who participated, and much thanks to the wonderful team for organizing such a terrific event.
(September 2007)
The days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting colder. This can only mean one thing: The RMNET has returned from summer holidays and is ready to get back to work! The Fall has classically been a busy time for the team, and this year is no exception, with a number of exciting initiatives and projects around the corner. We are currently preparing an application to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research which will allow us to partner with policy and decision makers to validate the Rural Birth Index in Canada, US, and Australia. We will also be presenting our work at two conferences in October: the Family Medicine Forum (October 11-13), and the North American Primary Care Research Group (October 20-23). Finally, we are currently organizing a Co-investigators' Symposium, which will take place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown Vancouver. Here, members of our extended research team (i.e. co-investigators, collaborators, community-based clinical investigators, and seed grant recipients) will come together to present on their research and discuss the latest in rural maternity care.
(June 2007)
Last week, the RMNET participated in the Rural Surgical Symposium, co-hosted by Dr. Stuart Iglesias and the Centre for Rural Health Research. Held in the lovely Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown Vancouver, this symposium brought together approximately 20 individuals throughout BC with invested interests in supporting rural surgical services. Areas of focused discussion centred around the need for GP Surgery, developing a curriculum to train these care providers, and professional development and support. With representatives from both academia and research, general surgery and GP Surgery, policy makers and care providers, this symposium brought together differing perspectives for one common goal -- to support local surgical services in the best way possible. Overall, the meeting was an amazing success, with plans for future meetings in the works.
(May 2007)
This month saw our research team at the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada (SRPC) Annual Meeting in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for three days of presentations, workshops, and networking. The RMNET presented in close collaboration with Dr. Stuart Iglesias (CBCI), who also attended to speak about rural surgical programs. In all, research findings from three of our active projects were presented, including "Practice Experiences of GP Surgeons," "Sustainable Rural Maternity Care: A Comprehensive Approach to Program Planning," and "The Rural Birth Index". Research team members were also available to attend a variety of presentations and workshops on rural health care, and to learn about the common challenges and solutions to rural practice. Between scoring the occasional goal (during the traditional East vs. West hockey tournament), the conference was a tremendous opportunity to share what we have learned in the past year, and to meet potential collaborators and research participants for future and upcoming projects.
(May 2007)
The RMNET was very pleased to welcome Dr. Alan Bernstein, the president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, to our office this past week. Dr. Bernstein's visit was accompanied by Bernie Bressler and Linda Peritz of the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. After a brief tour of our office space, and a round of introductions, the meeting was capped off by a presentation of our research team and the Rural Birth Index (see Resources). Needless to say, the entire team was honoured to have had this opportunity, and would like to express sincere thank-yous to VCHRI for arranging such a wonderful visit.
(March 2007)
It has only been 3 months since the start of the new year, and already we have a number of exciting initiatives on the horizon. Last month saw the research team submit two operating grants into the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to fund two separate studies: One investigating the phenomenon of GP Surgery in Australia and the US (a resubmission of a previously unsuccessful grant application); and the second, to further develop a health services planning tool to aid policy and decision-makers in determining where maternity services should be located. We antcipate the results of the competition in early to middle summer.
On other fronts, the RMNET team has grown quite considerably in the last couple of months, with a new administrative assistant, 2 new undergraduate academic assistants, and a Masters student. Check the "About Us" page for more information of our newest hires.
And finally, the RMNET is gearing up for a busy spring, with data gathering trips to Golden/Revelstoke for the GP Surgeons study at the end of March, and the SRPC Conference in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in early May. With the possibility of a couple of meetings with our co-investigative team, and a research symposium, it looks to becoming a very busy and productive year!
(February 2007)
The RMNET is delighted to welcome two new members to our research team, Stuart Iglesias and Ilene Bell! Stuart is a GP Surgeon based in Gibsons, and Ilene Bell is a licensed midwife from Nelson, BC. Both will be joining the research team as Community-Based Clinical Investigators, and in the next two years, will be undertaking research projects of their own interests with the support of the core team in Vancouver. More specifically, Stuart will be investigating the phenomenon of GP Surgery in BC and Alberta, and looking at their associated maternal and newborn outcomes. Ilene will be investigating interprofessional collaborative models of maternity care in Nelson and thesurrounding areas. The RMNET is looking forward to working closely with both Stu and Ilene in the coming years, and hopes to contribute in further developing both their research careers.
(December 2006)
The RM-NET would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy holiday season. This year has gone by with a flurry of activity, and we are most definitely looking forward to the coming year. Keep your eyes open for our holiday letters and cards in the mail, and further updates of our research activities. Take care, and have a safe and joyful holiday break!
(October 2006)
The RM-NET had a wonderful opportunity to lead to a workshop on team building at the 7th Annual Canadian Rural Health Research Society Conference in Prince George (October 19-21, 2006). The objectives of the workshop were to overview the success of three NET teams that were funded through the CIHR Rural and Northern Team Grant competition in 2004, and to review strategies that worked, and challenges faced by the different teams. The workshop was joined by Dr. Patrick McGrath and Dr. Neil Hanlon, who presented on insights gained through their own experiences of building capacity in their respective areas of research. The workshop was a tremendous success, as there was a good turnout for the discussion, which generated many interesting questions..
(September 2006)
The RM-NET has just opened an exciting new opportunity for motivated rural care providers (i.e. physician, nurse, midwife) who would like to conduct research in the area of rural maternity care. The successful candidate is eligible for up to $45,000 of buy-out funding (based on salary) for a 12-month placement with our research team in Vancouver. For more information on this exciting opportunity, please visit 'Opportunities for Involvement' for full application procedures.
(September 2006)
The RM-NET has just submitted a grant application to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to study international standards of training and maintenance of skills for general practitioners who perform cesarean sections. This grant proposal aims to learn from countries like Australia and the United States on how these GPs are supported, and present these findings to Canadian policy-makers so that we can better develop legislation and regulation to recruit and retain these valuable maternity care providers. For more information on the goals and objectives of this research proposal, please visit the 'Resources' page.
(August 2006)
5 members of the RM-NET team were recently in Nelson, Trail, Creston and Grand Forks collecting data for two of our on-going research projects (Rural Maternity Service Closures & Practice Experiences of GP Surgeons). We had the pleasure of spending 4 days interviewing dedicated care providers and administrators about the quality of maternity services in their community, as well as learning more about their backgrounds. Overall, the trip was a tremendous success, and we look forward to returning in the Spring to present our findings.
(July 2006)
The RM-NET was absolutely delighted to learn this summer that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has awarded us an additional 5 years of funding. The Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement grant is a 5-year operating grant that will allow us the opportunity to expand our research into the following areas: the cost-effectiveness of rural maternity services; maternal and newborn outcomes for rural women across Canada; experiences of rural nurses; stress experienced by parturient women and their families; interdisciplinary collaboration; and developing a model to determine the allocation of rural maternity health services.
The ICE grant will also allow us to implement an effective knowledge translation strategy that will engage indiviuals at all levels of rural health service planning, including rural care providers and community members. We are currently planning for the upcoming year, and look forward to beginning the next phase of our research soon!
(June 2006)
Jude Kornelsen and Stefan Grzybowski had the privilege of presenting a workshop on rural maternity care issues in British Columbia, alongside Andrew Kotaska, Shiraz Moola, and Glen Gill, at the Annual SOGC Conference held at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver. The 3 1/2 hour long workshop was a tremendous success, and provided an opportunity to share research findings from our Bella Bella, Logic Model, and Referral Hospital studies, as well as an opportunity to debate the issue of whether cesarean section backup is necessary to provide maternity services in small, isolated rural communities.
Karen MacKinnon, our postdoctoral fellow (and lead in our nursing projects), also presented some of her work on nurses' experiences of providing maternity services. Overall, the conference was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old colleagues, meet new contacts, and share our work with a broader audience.
If you would like to receive email updates about upcoming events:
If you have an event or opportunity you would like us to post, please email us at: info@ruralmatresearch.com
Please check back here to view our future newsletters
|
