We do some work with the College of Licensed Practical Nurses of Alberta so recognize this blog post is as much about my work as my opinion.
We recently did a random-sample conjoint study of 919 Albertans for the CLPNA on what values Albertans think are most important about providing them with professional nursing care. The results were interesting and more survey results are going to be available at http://www.clpna.com/ soon.
In the meantime I encourage you to visit the CLPNA site for more information on the roles, responsibilities and relationships of LPNs within nursing, healthcare and with patients. I strongly suggest you read the blog post on the recent KEP study on the appropriateness of the knowledge and education levels of soon-to-be-graduating nurses in Alberta.
There are some interesting attributes the public sees as most important and what they want from professional nurses, be they RN, LPNs or Registered Psychiatric Nurses. The top three expecations by the public are that nurses are to be skilled, knowledgeable as well as caring and compasionate. There were 15 other attributes in the study and all were seen as important, but those are the top three concerns of Albertans when they think about what is imperative for high quality professional nursing care.
With all the changes, uncertainty and volatility happening Alberta's healthcare system the CLPNA has taken this high road approach to better understanding and focused on meeting its professional responsibility to the public. They decided to go directly to Albertans and ask what they thought was important about high quality professional nursing care.
The CLPNA then went a step further and asked those same randomly selected Albertans how satisfied they were with the performance of the nursing profession in providing the kind of care they expected. There is lots of good news and some significant indications where there is room for improvement by nurses in those satisfaction results. We say this survey applies to nursing generally here because we did not differentiate between nurses, be they LPN, RPN or RNs when we asked the survey questions.
This dual approach of measuring expectations and satisfactions gives the CLPNA a clear picture of public expectations and performance impresssions on some 15 different attributes that relate to professional nursing care. What the conjoint study did was also survey members of the Licensed Practical Nursing profession on the same values. What emerged was nothing less than amazing. The over 1460 working LPNs who did the survey were 99.9% aligned with the public's priority for values and expectations of what constitutes high quality professional nursing care in Alberta.
That degree of alignment between what LPNs see as their role and responsibility with the public and patients has to be reassuring to citizens that LPNs get it. As for LPNs, they too can find gratification in the fact that what they perceive as their jobs and responsibilities as professionals are the same as the people they serve in Alberta.
These survey results have been presented and shared with officials in Alberta Health and Wellness, including the Minister Zwozdesky, Deputy Minister Ramotar, Parliamentary Assistant Sherman and head of AHS, Dr. Duckett along with other senior officals in their offices. The survey information was appreciated and well received in all instances. Now it has to be shared with others in government, other healthcare professionals, stakeholders, health advocacy groups and the general public.
So stay tuned. There are lots more interesting information coming out on the survey results. We will deal with the implications for providing high quality health care in Alberta soon, both here on this blog and at http://www.clpna.com/ over time.
Looking forward to your comments and questions.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday Morning Musings
Meet Calum Graham
As the reality of Monday morning settles in I offer you something completely different...but not in the Monty Python spirit. Calum Graham is an Alberta artist that astounded me at TEDx Banff last week. This 18 year old guitarist has a great talent and wonder touch and a warm engaging personality.
Don't watch this video now. You have to get your day organized - its Monday morning and I know you are going to be busy right now. Look at it later today, when you need some 5 minutes of solace and peace to get away from the din of the day. Then come back to this blog post and find some repose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lNxlnuFHW0
Robert Genn's Letters
I was in Banff on the weekend and stopped in at a showing of new works by Robert Genn, one of my favourite Canadian artists. The great surprise was the book of collected letters Robert has been writing every two weeks since July 1999. I scanned some content and was hooked. This guy can write as well as paint. Had a nice chat with Robert and we agreed to follow each other on line. I really recommend the book even though I have only rad a few letters so far. They are the kind of writing that makes you think, reflect and reason about a wide range of issues, ideas and events. Here is a link if you are interested in more info. http://www.painterskeys.com/ and want to subscribe to his letters.
Fil Fraser has a new book too!
My long time friend and author Fil Fraser is launching his new book "How the Blacks Created Canada." The event is at Audrey's Books 10702 Jasper Avenue in Edmonton at 7:30 pm Tuesday April 27, 2010. Fil is the lead on the monthly column we do (with others) on business ethics entitled "The Right Call" for Ruth Kelly's Alberta Venture magazine.
Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta
Cambridge Strategies Inc. is co-sponsoring a lecture series in Calgary (May 31) and Edmonton (June 1) with authors Gwynne Dyer ("Climate Wars"), David Peat ("Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century") and Scott Murray, a senior advisor in Human Resources in Science and Technology, Stats Canada. Scott has just completed some amazing research on the literacy ;levels and essentail skills gap in various labour, industry and professional sectors in Alberta. For tickets and more information go to http://www.learningourway.ca/ or email me at ken@cambridgestrategies.com
Moving On!
OK that is the good news for Monday morning. Now into the serious stuff of being Albertan and how we can be better at it. The first example will be the next post. It will be about the Greening the Oilsands: Canadian Science and Clean Tech Leads the Way symposium my business partner Satya Das and "Green Oil" author is participating in at Ottawa on April 29th. He is on a panel entitled "The Big Picture - Public Opinion, Politics, Policy." A very interesting event focused on federal government decision makers that is being organized by our friends at BlueSky Strategy Group Inc. with Canada 2020.
As the reality of Monday morning settles in I offer you something completely different...but not in the Monty Python spirit. Calum Graham is an Alberta artist that astounded me at TEDx Banff last week. This 18 year old guitarist has a great talent and wonder touch and a warm engaging personality.
Don't watch this video now. You have to get your day organized - its Monday morning and I know you are going to be busy right now. Look at it later today, when you need some 5 minutes of solace and peace to get away from the din of the day. Then come back to this blog post and find some repose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lNxlnuFHW0
Robert Genn's Letters
I was in Banff on the weekend and stopped in at a showing of new works by Robert Genn, one of my favourite Canadian artists. The great surprise was the book of collected letters Robert has been writing every two weeks since July 1999. I scanned some content and was hooked. This guy can write as well as paint. Had a nice chat with Robert and we agreed to follow each other on line. I really recommend the book even though I have only rad a few letters so far. They are the kind of writing that makes you think, reflect and reason about a wide range of issues, ideas and events. Here is a link if you are interested in more info. http://www.painterskeys.com/ and want to subscribe to his letters.
Fil Fraser has a new book too!
My long time friend and author Fil Fraser is launching his new book "How the Blacks Created Canada." The event is at Audrey's Books 10702 Jasper Avenue in Edmonton at 7:30 pm Tuesday April 27, 2010. Fil is the lead on the monthly column we do (with others) on business ethics entitled "The Right Call" for Ruth Kelly's Alberta Venture magazine.
Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta
Cambridge Strategies Inc. is co-sponsoring a lecture series in Calgary (May 31) and Edmonton (June 1) with authors Gwynne Dyer ("Climate Wars"), David Peat ("Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century") and Scott Murray, a senior advisor in Human Resources in Science and Technology, Stats Canada. Scott has just completed some amazing research on the literacy ;levels and essentail skills gap in various labour, industry and professional sectors in Alberta. For tickets and more information go to http://www.learningourway.ca/ or email me at ken@cambridgestrategies.com
Moving On!
OK that is the good news for Monday morning. Now into the serious stuff of being Albertan and how we can be better at it. The first example will be the next post. It will be about the Greening the Oilsands: Canadian Science and Clean Tech Leads the Way symposium my business partner Satya Das and "Green Oil" author is participating in at Ottawa on April 29th. He is on a panel entitled "The Big Picture - Public Opinion, Politics, Policy." A very interesting event focused on federal government decision makers that is being organized by our friends at BlueSky Strategy Group Inc. with Canada 2020.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
EYJAFJALLAJOKULL
Mother Nature at her magnificent best!
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html
Will Integrity Be Returned to Alberta's Public Accounts Committee Tomorrow?
Will wisdom prevail tomorrow at the Public Accounts Committee and the decisoin to effectively muzzle the Chair of the committee be reversed. I expect most Albertnas have no clue that yet another erosion of accountable and transparent democracy was done to us by the governmet recently.
There are rumours that the anti-democratic decision may be proposed to reveresed at the Public Accounts Committee meeting tomorrow by the same PC MLA that put the motion forward in the first instance. Here is a link to an audio broadcast of the Public Accounts Committee meeting scheduled for 8:30 am tomorrow. You might want to tune in.
Here are some links to news items and some key blog posts that will give you some background on these events.
http://communities.canada.com/EDMONTONJOURNAL/blogs/electionnotebook/archive/2010/04/20/tories-on-muzzling-public-accounts-committee-never-mind.aspx
http://daveberta.ca/?p=2492
http://daveberta.ca/?p=2401
http://www.calgaryherald.com/columnists/Braid+Dave+Rodney+veto+power+puts+democracy+peril/2927067/story.html
The price of democracy is vigilance. Tune in on-line and hear what those who have your consent to govern you are doing.
There are rumours that the anti-democratic decision may be proposed to reveresed at the Public Accounts Committee meeting tomorrow by the same PC MLA that put the motion forward in the first instance. Here is a link to an audio broadcast of the Public Accounts Committee meeting scheduled for 8:30 am tomorrow. You might want to tune in.
Here are some links to news items and some key blog posts that will give you some background on these events.
http://communities.canada.com/EDMONTONJOURNAL/blogs/electionnotebook/archive/2010/04/20/tories-on-muzzling-public-accounts-committee-never-mind.aspx
http://daveberta.ca/?p=2492
http://daveberta.ca/?p=2401
http://www.calgaryherald.com/columnists/Braid+Dave+Rodney+veto+power+puts+democracy+peril/2927067/story.html
The price of democracy is vigilance. Tune in on-line and hear what those who have your consent to govern you are doing.
Nature is Disrupting Our Lives! Can We Change or Will Nature Have to Change?
I love the fuzzy logic of climate change deniers that the “science is not conclusive.” What they can’t get their head aroudn is that is why we call it science. New ideas, innovations, realizations, discoveries and understandings are replacing old ideas all the time, thanks to science. Inconclusiveness and change is the essence of science.
That said, my real motivation behind this blog post is to consider the way we, as a species, cope and adapt to the impluses of Nature that disrupt our lives. The Iceland volcano impacted the world, most obviously parts of Europe but the ripple effect of grounded airlines is a global story of enormous economic proportion. It has shown us, in no uncertain terms, just how much humanitiy is embedded in the planet and how much we humans are embedded in each other - and how uncertainty is the default state of nature and man.
As I have said before the future of planet Earth is fine. Nature will adapt and evolve. The real over arching question for humanity is what is our future, as a species, going to be on the planet? Are we going to be adaptable and nimble enough to survive? Or are we, self-consious, self-satisfied and self-distructing in the face of what we are doing to the planet’s ecology. One thing for sure, the planet won’t miss us and does not need us. The converse is not so true.
In the short term we are being inconvenienced by Nature’s Icelandic antics that disrupt has many lives but nobody had died from this event. We have other serious disruptions of Nature going on right now that are causing death and dispair like earthquakes, floods, tsunamis. The point about the effect of disruptions is well made by Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter. In her blog, “Surprise! Four Strategies for Coping with Disruptions” she aptly notes that “Surprises are the new normal, and they are not fun.”
She outlines manmade disruptions like “…financial crises, currency fluctuations, disruptive technologies, job restructurings, shortages of vital drugs, populists’ rebellons, possible pandemics, and terrorist threats….” Those are some of the joys of us humans being embedded in each other. She then notes we get to add on the “…devastating earthquakes and extraordinary weather events.” Man embedded in Nature!
The consequences of the unexpected, according to Kanter, are a “leadership imperative” and that is about the ability to make fast effective decisions in the face of surprises. She outlines four leadership based strategies for quick response and to minimize disruptions. They are Backup, in the form of a Plan B. Communications that must be quick and spread virally. Collaboration based on human relationships grounded in commitment to one another and resiliency that empowers people to act. Finally she points out the importance of values and principles. Clear standards and values are needed to guide people in deciding on what is the right thing to do and doing it without waiting for permission.
Good food for thought. At Reboot Alberta we have taken extra effort to look at communications, collaboration and values and prinicples in our political and governing culture in Alberta. Reboot people feel there is a leadership shortfall and a shallow aenimic public policy agenda in Alberta these days. What Albertans have not come up with yet is a viable alternaitve to the status quo. We have not yet engaged in making a Plan B and turning it into the Plan A.
In the future Reboot Alberta progressive citizen’s movement has to move beyond bitching and complaining about the democratic deficit and leadership shortcomings. We have to quit merely admiring the problems and get into an activist solution space for citizens to re-imagine the purpose of politics in a more modern democracy. We need to get serious about designing some alternatives that will replace the conventional political institutions. In short we need more than a reboot of the existing political and governance culture of Alberta. We need a system upgrade.
That said, my real motivation behind this blog post is to consider the way we, as a species, cope and adapt to the impluses of Nature that disrupt our lives. The Iceland volcano impacted the world, most obviously parts of Europe but the ripple effect of grounded airlines is a global story of enormous economic proportion. It has shown us, in no uncertain terms, just how much humanitiy is embedded in the planet and how much we humans are embedded in each other - and how uncertainty is the default state of nature and man.
As I have said before the future of planet Earth is fine. Nature will adapt and evolve. The real over arching question for humanity is what is our future, as a species, going to be on the planet? Are we going to be adaptable and nimble enough to survive? Or are we, self-consious, self-satisfied and self-distructing in the face of what we are doing to the planet’s ecology. One thing for sure, the planet won’t miss us and does not need us. The converse is not so true.
In the short term we are being inconvenienced by Nature’s Icelandic antics that disrupt has many lives but nobody had died from this event. We have other serious disruptions of Nature going on right now that are causing death and dispair like earthquakes, floods, tsunamis. The point about the effect of disruptions is well made by Harvard’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter. In her blog, “Surprise! Four Strategies for Coping with Disruptions” she aptly notes that “Surprises are the new normal, and they are not fun.”
She outlines manmade disruptions like “…financial crises, currency fluctuations, disruptive technologies, job restructurings, shortages of vital drugs, populists’ rebellons, possible pandemics, and terrorist threats….” Those are some of the joys of us humans being embedded in each other. She then notes we get to add on the “…devastating earthquakes and extraordinary weather events.” Man embedded in Nature!
The consequences of the unexpected, according to Kanter, are a “leadership imperative” and that is about the ability to make fast effective decisions in the face of surprises. She outlines four leadership based strategies for quick response and to minimize disruptions. They are Backup, in the form of a Plan B. Communications that must be quick and spread virally. Collaboration based on human relationships grounded in commitment to one another and resiliency that empowers people to act. Finally she points out the importance of values and principles. Clear standards and values are needed to guide people in deciding on what is the right thing to do and doing it without waiting for permission.
Good food for thought. At Reboot Alberta we have taken extra effort to look at communications, collaboration and values and prinicples in our political and governing culture in Alberta. Reboot people feel there is a leadership shortfall and a shallow aenimic public policy agenda in Alberta these days. What Albertans have not come up with yet is a viable alternaitve to the status quo. We have not yet engaged in making a Plan B and turning it into the Plan A.
In the future Reboot Alberta progressive citizen’s movement has to move beyond bitching and complaining about the democratic deficit and leadership shortcomings. We have to quit merely admiring the problems and get into an activist solution space for citizens to re-imagine the purpose of politics in a more modern democracy. We need to get serious about designing some alternatives that will replace the conventional political institutions. In short we need more than a reboot of the existing political and governance culture of Alberta. We need a system upgrade.
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