Supporting work practices through telehealth: impact on nurses in peripheral regions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Canada, workforce shortages in the health care sector constrain the ability of the health care system to meet the needs of its population and of its health care professionals. This issue is of particular importance in peripheral regions of Quebec, where significant inequalities in workforce distribution between regions has lead to acute nursing shortages and increased workloads. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are innovative solutions that can be used to develop strategies to optimise the use of available resources and to design new nursing work practices. However, current knowledge is still limited about the real impact of ICTs on nursing recruitment and retention. Our aim is to better understand how work practice reorganization, supported by ICTs, and particularly by telehealth, may influence professional, educational, and organizational factors relating to Quebec nurses, notably those working in peripheral regions.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>First, we will conduct a descriptive study on the issue of nursing recruitment. Stratified sampling will be used to select approximately twenty innovative projects relating to the reorganization of work practices based upon ICTs. Semi-structured interviews with key informants will determine professional, educational, and organizational recruitment factors. The results will be used to create a questionnaire which, using a convenience sampling method, will be mailed to 600 third year students and recent graduates of two Quebec university nursing faculties. Descriptive, correlation, and hierarchical regression analyses will be performed to identify factors influencing nursing graduates' intentions to practice in peripheral regions. Secondly, we will conduct five case studies pertaining to the issue of nursing retention. Five ICT projects in semi-urban, rural, and isolated regions have been identified. Qualitative data will be collected through field observation and approximately fifty semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Data from both parts of this research project will be jointly analysed using triangulation of researchers, theoretical approaches, methods, and results. Continuous exchanges with decision makers and periodic knowledge transfer activities are planned to facilitate the dissemination and utilization of research results in policies regarding the nursing recruitment and retention.</p

Une morale de la transparence : Entretien avec Arthur Lamothe

Arthur Lamothe, cinéaste québécois a entrepris de constituer depuis 1973 une Chronique des Indiens du Nord-Est du Québec. Il réalise cette oeuvre considérable de façon indépendante.Le cinéma direct ne produit pas le réel, il produit, à partir de lui, autre chose. Lamothe en est extrêmement conscient et son parti-pris de simplicité fait que cet « autre chose » reste conforme à la culture amérindienne tout en témoignant du processus d’aliénation et de dépossession auquel elle se trouve confrontée. Lamothe tient à la transparence de ses interventions. En établissant une distance entre le dit des Amérindiens et sa propre parole, il veut échapper au jeu de miroirs du cinéma direct.Arthur Lamothe, an independent Québec filmmaker, has been working on a Chronical of the Indians of North-Eastern Québec since 1973."Direct cinema" does not attempt to reproduce reality but to use a real situation as a basis for creation. Lamothe is particularly conscious of this fact and has sought to use the most "simple" situations of every-day life in such a way that they can portray the North-American Indian culture while at the same time showing the processes of alienation and cultural expropriation at work.Lamothe's own role is thus part of his films. By showing the distance between the life of the Indians and his own perspective, he tries to escape the prison of mirrors that is so often the result of direct cinema.Arthur Lamothe es un cineasta del Québec que trabaja desde 1973 a construír una Crónica de los indios del Noreste del Québec. Realiza esta obra considerable en forma independiente.El cine directo no produce la realidad: sólo produce, a partir de ella, otra realidad. Lamothe es extremadamente consciente de este principio, y su opción de simplicidad hace que este otra realidad permanezca en conformidad con la cultura amerindia, al mismo tiempo que testimonia sobre la alienación y la desposesión que la confrontan. Buscando una transparencia de sus intervenciones y estableciendo una distancia entre el decir de los amerindios y su propio decir, Lamothe se esfuerza de escapar del juego de espejos del cine directo