Leadership

Executive Training for Research Application (EXTRA)

Sue McCutcheon

EXTRA Fellow, 2008: Sue McCutcheon, RN, MScN

Current position: Vice President, Clinical Services, Grey Bruce Health Services

I am accountable for the clinical management of five small rural hospitals, one large community hospital and a hyperbaric chamber. My responsibilities include pharmacy, laboratory and diagnostic imaging and all patient-care units. I manage the Meaford, Markdale, Southampton, Wiarton, Lions Head, Owen Sound and Tobermory sites, which are located in Grey and Bruce counties.

Intervention project: Building Sustainable Nursing Resources in Rural Hospitals: Retaining New Recruits

Nurses new to rural hospitals require support and education specifically designed to help them meet the demands of rural practice. They need to understand the health needs of the community, be able to work independently with few resources, be capable of maintaining professional competence away from educational institutions and fit with the rhythm and values of the community they work in.

Recognizing that nursing workforce planning is complex, nursing and human-resource leaders at Grey Bruce Health Services developed a framework to describe the overall goal of this type of planning, the interventions to be associated with it, and its evaluation.

One small, but important, component of this framework was a mentorship program designed to meet the needs of new nursing graduates. Mentoring not only helps individuals grow and develop; institutions benefit from overall capacity building.

Interviews with the new graduates who participated in the mentorship program revealed that mentorship helped them to build relationships with the team, manage patient care, navigate the system and obtain advice on career planning. All of the new graduates who participated in the mentorship program are still employed with Grey Bruce Health Services and they all have existing ties to the local community. Grey Bruce Health Services is using the information learned from this mentorship program to develop recruiting strategies.

EXTRA benefits:

The EXTRA fellowship has allowed me to continue to build my confidence and my ability to lead clinical services. It has also broadened my network of peers across Canada. These peers have become great advisors with respect to the many complex problems I face in my role.

Most significant skills acquired through EXTRA:

The EXTRA fellowship has helped me develop skills in solving the very complex problems I face in the administration of health care. Secondly, and most importantly, I now have a method to help me manage change in very complex systems.