Dr. Doris Grinspun
We have now finalized many engaging and user-friendly changes to the RNAO website – live and available for all to explore. One fundamental update is the addition of a new In Focus feature. This is much more than just a change to existing content. It provides a roadmap to RNAO’s integrated work, reflecting our ongoing commitment to improve the online experiences of members and other visitors.
What you will see in this work is a comprehensive yet compact view of the rich RNAO work through specific areas of focus. We highlight our journey, including the history or trigger for our work on the topic, the role of members in leading this work, our partnerships, policy and capacity building, and the traction we’re getting in mainstream and social media. At a glance, you will see our members’ powerful voices, perspectives, experiences and collective results.
Let’s take a closer look at what this means and why it’s important.
Snapshot of In Focus
Three broad layers serve as the In Focus umbrella: health equity, health system transformation and leading change. Within each of these, there are themes fleshed out by RNAO staff, members and other engaged partners. The first layer – health equity – now features live dedicated webpages that outline all of RNAO’s work on two important themes: Black nurses and Indigenous health. We’ll launch a webpage outlining a third key theme within health equity – 2SLGBTQI+ health – in June 2022 to celebrate Pride Month.
Within the health-system transformation layer, we delve into RNAO’s work on four themes: long-term care, RNs and NPs (which will be launched during Queen's Park Day on Feb. 24), nurses’ health and wellbeing, and mental health and addiction.
Finally, in the third layer, we showcase the way RNAO leads change. We highlight our Leading Change Toolkit, as well as RNAO's ongoing stellar policy activation initiatives such as action alerts, Take Your MPP to Work, Queen’s Park on the Road, Queen’s Park Day and other mobilizing activities. The third layer also features tools that power nurses to lead practice and policy changes.
Collective approach to content and change
In Focus is dynamic and shaped collaboratively by staff, interest groups and external partners. The relevant interest groups were engaged in shaping the themes we have already launched. So were other partners such as the Black Nurses Task Force for the Black nurses and RNAO theme, and Indigenous leaders including MPP Sol Mamakwa for the Indigenous health and RNAO theme. Proactively involving members and external partners in the many ways RNAO leads change will continue to be our approach going forward. RNAO is about multiple champions driving change.
In Focus emphasizes the collective nature of our work. Whether we are creating position statements supported by our policy team, releasing BPGs with our IABPG department, launching new interest groups nurtured by our membership department or anything else in between, In Focus draws all of this work together to further power RNAO’s members. It is a tool for us to use as a collective, to continue accelerating meaningful change on critical issues.
User-first approach to sharing our work and resources
The impetus for In Focus can be traced back to the expressions of frustration received from visitors to RNAO.ca who were overwhelmed by the volume of material we share. Our rich content was hard to find – the breadth and richness was buried within the site and not fully integrated into a whole, for the end user.
This important user feedback triggered us to review our way forward with the website. We now organize it to make sense to anyone who is visiting, not just for those intimately involved with a specific topic. For example, the average visitor likely doesn’t know that RNAO offers magnificent webinars on Indigenous ways of knowing. Now, that same visitor doesn’t need to know any specifics. They need only Google “RNAO and Indigenous health” to be exposed to the rich work undertaken by RNAO.
In Focus is a one-stop shop for key themes of interest. It doesn’t replace our existing sections dedicated to the board of directors and assembly of leaders, policy, IABPG, membership, media and more. Rather, it’s meant to bring together this work for ease of access by site visitors.
Sharpened focus through streamlined site structure
Navigation through each of the In Focus themes is structured around seven topic areas. The first – our journey – gives context for why RNAO is focused on this theme. For example, in the case of Black nurses and RNAO, we talk about the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement – the impetus for our establishing the Black Nurses Task Force.
Following that, we explore how members are leading change. Then we share RNAO policy on the theme, followed by partnerships and engagements, capacity building, RNAO media and, finally, how staff walks the talk. The same site structure repeats for all In Focus themes, allowing us to showcase our work for all to see and use. Bringing together all that RNAO does on a specific theme in one dedicated space also allows us to reflect on what we are doing well, and which gaps we can explore further through our work.
Future plans for In Focus and RNAO.ca
Going forward, RNAO’s In Focus leads will meet regularly with the most relevant interest groups and other partners external to RNAO. This will build on the success of collaboration in the past, when RNAO’s new Indigenous Nurses and Allies Interest Group (INAIG) met with staff to discuss progress on the Indigenous health and RNAO theme, providing insight on where we need to take our efforts.
This work and other broader work improving and updating RNAO.ca will continue through 2022 and beyond. Our website, like our policy, practice, communications and membership work, is dynamic and rich.
As your CEO, I had a vision for bringing In Focus to life. But visions stay in the sky unless bridges are built to make them a reality. It is thanks to you – our members, our assembly of leaders and our board of directors, supported by RNAO’s expert staff – that we are creating a website experience like no other.
On this note, a very special thanks to RNAO staff. Your intrinsic motivation and unwavering eagerness to constantly do better, alongside your exquisite expertise, is unmatched.
In Focus is transformative and inspiring in the same way RNAO and its members are.