This guide challenges prevailing economic perspectives on the factors that influence innovation, positing compassionate leadership as a fundamental enabler of innovation- and improvement-oriented cultures in health care. Evidence shows strong, convincing links between psychological safety, supportiveness, positivity, empathy, leadership and innovation.
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Leadership and professional development Organizational wellness
This change management toolkit from Cancer Care Ontario’s Models of Care Program can assist individuals and groups interested in implementing new models of care. It includes education and resources on planning, implementing, evaluating and sustaining effective change, as well as resources for assessing resistance and readiness to change.
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Change management Leadership and professional development Governance tools Policies, standards and best practices Measurement and outcomes
This article clarifies that empathy involves the capacity to participate deeply in a patient’s experience without losing sight of the fact that it is not one’s own experience. It argues that doctors need empathy and self-awareness to properly respect patient dignity.
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This article looks at the need for physicians to be both clinically competent and empathetic to their patients as well as the impact of those requirements on physicians themselves and their emotional well-being.
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Conflict can arise from well-intentioned but poorly communicated expectations, shifting priorities or a lack of resources. In this article, the Canadian Medical Protective Association looks at conflict between physicians and potential solutions.
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In this article, Dr. Helen Riess of Harvard Medical School discusses her efforts to nurture empathy among health care workers. She says empathy is a critical component of communication that helps build trust between patients and physicians.
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This primer addresses the principles and practices of change management and how they apply to quality improvement in health care. It is a guide for designing and implementing successful change efforts, and for understanding how individuals, teams and organizations shift or change from a current state to a future state.
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Change management Leadership and professional development Governance tools Policies, standards and best practices Measurement and outcomes
This guide helps organizations protect their employees’ psychological health and safety (PH&S), providing a logical approach to moving forward with PH&S strategies based on the best information currently available. It walks through the steps of planning and implementing workplace interventions to protect PH&S and presents tools for taking action. These include reports that offer detailed guidance as well as skill-building websites and sources of additional practical knowledge. The guide also includes stories that illustrate how workplaces have tackled PH&S.
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Physical, psychological and cultural safety Organizational wellness
This guidebook, endorsed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and the Ontario Hospital Association, addresses concerns raised in a growing body of literature about the behaviour of health care professionals and its impact on patient outcomes. The guidebook offers tools that can be adapted to help workers in a variety of educational and health care delivery settings. While the guidebook focuses primarily on physicians in Ontario, it could be adapted to apply equally to all members of the health care team and health care professionals in other jurisdictions.
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The Practice Guide of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario articulates the health care profession’s values and the principles of medical practice. It also provides assistance to medical professionals in determining their specific duties and the reasons for those duties. Finally, it organizes the College’s existing policies within a principled framework and provides a basis for new policy development.