September 2021 | Issue 2
Prepared by: Primary Health Care and Chronic Disease Management Network at Nova Scotia Health
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NEW: Post-COVID Practice Supports for Primary Health Care
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As our understanding of the impacts of COVID-19 continue to evolve, and we are learning that many patients will continue to experience persistent symptoms following the infectious stage. Primary health care providers have a crucial role to play in supporting their patients to manage these ongoing post-COVID symptoms.
The Primary Health Care and Chronic Disease Management Network, in collaboration with the COVID Network, clinicians, patients, and partners, have developed the following practice supports to build capacity of Nova Scotia primary health care providers and teams to care for patients experiencing post-COVID symptoms:
Providers's Forum: The Post-COVID Providers Forum is an online discussion platform that uses TimedRight to connect providers virtually to ask questions, share expertise, experience, and the latest evidence, and give and receive support related to post-COVID. The Forum will be moderated by clinician peers with experience caring for patients experiencing post-COVID symptoms. Providers interested in joining can complete the Post-COVID Providers Forum Request.
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Webinar Series: A two-part CME accredited webinar series was held to support primary health care providers and teams to care for patents experiencing post COVID-19 symptoms. Hosted by Doctors Nova Scotia, the webinar series aimed to help participants understand post-COVID and local epidemiology trends, how to assess, manage and monitor post-COVID symptoms, and increase awareness of local resources for patient and provider support.
Webinar 1: Post-COVID and the System of Care in Nova Scotia
Webinar 2: Post-COVID Treatment and Management (Case-Based Learning)
The Post-COVID webinars are available as CME-accredited self-learning modules. To participate in this self-learning, watch the recording of the live session(s) and complete the self-learning post-session activity. The second webinar will be recorded and posted online for those unable to attend.
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Post-COVID supports are available for patients, too! |
www.MyCOVIDRecoveryNS.ca is a website with the most up-to-date information available about managing or treating the lingering symptoms of COVID-19. The site includes trusted information on common symptoms, advice for managing these symptoms, and where to go for more support. It supports those diagnosed with COVID-19 to work towards recovery, and supports health care providers and teams who are caring for patients in their communities.
Watch this video to learn more about the website. |
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UPDATE: Group Medical Visit resources now available online! |
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Group Medical Visits
Group Medical Visits are a strategy to deliver efficient, quality health care to groups of patients with similar health needs. Tools, resources and supports aimed at supporting providers and teams to plan and deliver Group Medical Visits, in-person or virtually, are now available, with more to come.
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Key Updates
With the help of a multidisciplinary task team and primary health care clinicians, we have updated a suite of tools and resources to support you to plan and implement Group Medical Visits. These resources are now available on our website, and include the following and much more: |
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What's Next
Planning is underway for a fall Group Medical Visit virtual learning session, which will provide an overview of the Group Medical Visit model and the resources available, and feature primary health care clinicians to highlight some of the Group Medical Visits happening locally throughout Nova Scotia. If you are a clinician with GMV experience to share, we want to hear from you!
We will also be engaging family physicians to better understand their experience with Group Medical Visits, including enablers and barriers to engaging in this care delivery model.
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Quality Improvement Resources |
Quality improvement is a core attribute of high-performing teams and is critical to realize the full vision for a strengthened primary health care system in Nova Scotia.
PHCQuality.ca contains a collection of resources and tools from trusted organizations that have been selected by Primary Health Care to support providers and teams in participating in and/or leading quality improvement initiatives.
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Our progress: Moving our Practice Support Program Areas of Focus Forward
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Behaviour Change Counselling Development Program |
The Behaviour Change Counselling Program focuses on supports and strategies to build provider knowledge, skills and confidence to work collaboratively with patients to elicit behaviour change to improve health.
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Key Updates
Primary Health Care staff have access to eight LMS e-modules and monthly virtual workshops focusing on specific behavior change skill sets. See the updated schedule here.
Two new e-modules for patients on goal setting have been created:
A group of five physicians have reviewed the current program content and delivery approach to provide feedback and advice on modifying the program for a physician audience. Input is being incorporated in preparation for a 2022 program launch.
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What's Next
Behaviour Change Counselling Development Program for Physicians to launch in early 2022.
Planning is underway for a Community of Practice – All Primary Health Care providers with an interest in behaviour change will be welcome to join.
Proof of concept planning is underway to create a tailored approach for supporting one-on-one behaviour change conversations with patients. Aiming for a late 2021 launch.
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The BETTER ProgramTM includes strategies, resources and tools to improve efficient screening and prevention activities focused on cancer, diabetes, heart disease and associated lifestyle factors in Primary Health Care practice settings.
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Key Updates
We have refreshed the BETTERTM Program evaluation tools!
Program evaluation is an important step in understanding the how well the program is meeting the objectives. You can begin using the new evaluation tools today. Any paper surveys can be scanned and sent to Laura Wentzell.
The following tools are available through the PHCQuality.ca site: |
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What's Next
Evaluation is underway with the first 24 participating teams to determine the approach for future spread.
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The Fountain of HealthTM, Health Behaviour Change Toolkit provides clinicians with brief behavior change tools that take less than 5 minutes to use in routine care to support patients to achieve their health goals with minimal supports. These tools are adaptable to a wide range of health behaviors.
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Key Updates
Patients and clinicians can also check out the The Wellness App for goal tracking and to receive encouragement between visits.
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What's Next
Further promotions are being planned to communicate to providers and teams that Fountain of HealthTM tools are available to support them and their patients.
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New: Physical Activity Counselling Practice Support Program
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The Physical Activity Counselling Practice Support Program will support primary health care providers and teams to build the knowledge, skills and confidence required to identify a patient’s level of physical activity and provide patient-centred interventions. These supports will include a suite of resources and educational opportunities adapted to meet the unique needs of physicians and primary health care providers in Nova Scotia. |
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Key Updates
The health benefits of regular moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity and reduction of sedentary behavior are well established in the literature. The Physical Activity Counselling Practice Supports Program (PAC PSP) will provide resources for Primary Health Care providers to help establish a patient’s level of physical activity and provide patient-centred interventions. The supports will include a suite of resources and educational opportunities. More information will be provided as the project progresses.
The PAC PSP development is funded by the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage as part the Let’s Get Moving Strategy. |
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What's Next
A provincial multi-disciplinary working group has been identified to guide this work and will begin meeting in September 2021. Stay tuned and check for updates to the PHCQuality.ca site. |
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Online Health and Wellness Resources: HealthyNS.ca |
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Comprehensive information about staying well, prevention, and living a healthy life with chronic conditions for your patients, including online wellness programs offered by Primary Health Care.
The new fall program schedule is now available at HealthyNS.ca.
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Adult Mental Health
Practice Support Program
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Interactive modules for family physicians and nurse practitioners to develop the skills and confidence in diagnosing and treating patients with mild to moderate depression and anxiety. |
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Key Updates
Forty primary care providers have completed the Adult Mental Health Practice Support Program since its launch in December 2019. The program has undergone adaptations to increase relevance to primary care providers and teams throughout Nova Scotia, and has shifted to a completely virtual model of delivery. The program will be modified further this fall and delivered to faculty and medical residents at Dalhousie as part of a research project in partnership with the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
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What's Next
Registration is open until October 5th for the fourth program cohort. This Group Learning Program has been certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada for up to 21 Mainpro+ credits. All sessions are mandatory and will be held virtually on the following dates:
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Learning Session 1: Wednesday, October 6, 2021, 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm
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Learning Session 2: Wednesday, November 24, 2021, 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm
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Learning Session 3: Wednesday, January 12, 2022, 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm
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Atlantic Mentorship Network - Pain and Addiction |
Enhancing the capacity of primary care providers to manage chronic pain and substance use disorders in primary care through collaborative education and mentorship. |
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Key Updates
The Atlantic Mentorship Network - Pain and Addiction [AMN-P&A] in collaboration with PainBC and the Centre for Effective Practice was successful in their proposal to Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program. The Health Canada contribution agreement provides funding in the amount of $2.8 million over 4 years to develop Adaptive Mentoring networks in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia. The AMN-P&A will be providing its many years of experience in building and implementing mentorship networks to inform the models to be established in other parts of the country. Through this four-year contribution agreement, primary care providers will receive support to provide compassionate and effective care for Canadians living with chronic pain, substance use and/or mental illness.
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What's Next
The Safer Opioid Prescribing Program: Developed and delivered by the University of Toronto to assist physicians, medical residents, and nurse practitioners in acquiring knowledge and learning new skills in chronic pain management and opioid prescribing.
- Program format: 3-part webinar series followed by full-day virtual workshop
- Next program offering: September 14 to November 27, 2021, registrations must be received on or before September 3, 2021
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Click here for more details
Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Online Course: Developed and presented by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), this course prepares health care providers to effectively and safely manage the treatment of clients receiving methadone or buprenorphine/naloxone for opioid use disorder. This course also promotes inter-professional collaboration among the health care team involved in the delivery of opioid dependence treatment.
- Program format: 6 part self-directed online modules, and 4 one hour Nova Scotia based “Ask the Expert” webinars
- Next course offering: October 4 to December 15, 2021, registrations must be received on or before September 30, 2021
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Click here for more information
Planning is underway for an Alcohol Use Disorder and Benzodiazepine workshop which will look at the screening, pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic management of Alcohol Use Disorder as well as the epidemiology and clinical considerations along with pharmacologic and best practices for benzodiazepine use.
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Opioid Use Disorder
Practice Support Program
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Training and support for primary care providers and teams to build competencies for the care of patients with opioid use disorder (OUD), including the safe prescribing of buprenorphine/naloxone. |
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Key Updates
The Opioid Use Disorder Practice Support Program launched virtually in December 2020. Eight providers completed the program, with evaluation results indicating each session was meeting the intended learning outcomes as well as increasing knowledge, skill, and confidence in implementing OUD treatment strategies in the primary care practice setting. The program will be closely monitored and reviewed for continual improvement and applicability to primary care.
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What's Next
The second program cohort will begin in October 2021. Registration is open until October 27, 2021. This Group Learning program has been certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Nova Scotia Chapter for up to 15 Mainpro+ credits. Over the program duration, participants will attend three half-day virtual learning sessions and three one-hour webinars:
Virtual Learning Sessions (1:00 pm – 5:00 pm)
- Learning Session 1: October 28, 2021
- Learning Session 2: December 9, 2021
- Learning Session 3: January 20, 2022
Webinars (12:00 pm – 1:00 pm)
- Webinar 1: November 18, 2021
- Webinar 2: January 6, 2022
- Webinar 3: February 10, 2022
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Nova Scotia Health, Mental Health and Addictions Program; eMental Health Services |
Launched in June of 2020, MHAhelpNS.ca aims to provide Nova Scotians with information, resources, and supports in an easily accessible way. Since the launch there have been over 500,00 page views and ongoing effort to add information, resources and supports. The website is a place where Nova Scotians can:
- Learn about mental health and addiction topics.
- Search for mental health and addictions programs, and community supports in their local area.
- Access and sign-up for a range of online self-help and peer-supported programs and services.
The website also links people to a variety of free eMental Health services, The tools cover topics from mindfulness, coping strategies and skills, depression, substance use, building healthy relationships, peer support, and more.
Please watch and share these two short videos. They highlight key features of the website and describe the eMH services.
To support healthcare providers in learning more about the new eMental Health services and tools the Mental Health and Addiction Program is offering information sessions and free promotional materials (e.g., posters, pamphlets, key resource contact cards) that can be accessed by contacting amanda.hudson@nshealth.ca.
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Addictions Medicine Consult Service: Rapid addictions medicine consultant advice is available to Nova Scotia Primary Health Care providers by calling 1-855-970-0234. Consultants are available between 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Mon-Fri. More information can be found here. |
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Enhancing Access to Primary Health Care |
Supporting providers and teams to implement strategies to reduce delays for services, increase capacity for same day scheduled appointments, and improve clinic workflows and efficiencies, while enhancing patient experience and improving work-life balance. |
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Key Updates
Self-directed resources, tools, and session recordings are available for interested providers and teams to access. Opportunities for tailored coaching are also available for providers and teams that have started on their access journey to work through practice-specific challenges.
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Supports for Virtual Care |
Virtual Care Options are available for Primary Health Care providers and teams. We are working to offer additional tools, resources and supports to help providers and teams adopt and optimize virtual primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. In the meantime, visit Nova Scotia Health’s Zoom for Healthcare page and check out the Virtual Care Implementation Guide.
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Key Updates
A Virtual Care Knowledge Exchange Webinar Series was held in winter 2021. The webinar featured speakers and clinicians from various backgrounds sharing their virtual care experience.
Webinar 1 | Making the Leap to Virtual Care: Moving Beyond the Telephone
Webinar 2a | Getting Started with Virtual Care (Session for Chronic Disease Management/Wellness Providers/Teams)
Webinar 2b | Getting Started with Virtual Care (Session for Primary Care Providers/Teams)
Webinar 3 | Beyond the Basics: Enhancing Virtual Care
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Attachment and Panel Identification in Primary Health Care |
Attachment and Panel Identification in Primary Heath Care is a new initiative to support Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioners and teams to identify, monitor and maintain patient panels and support quality improvement. The approach has been co-designed with Nova Scotia Nurse Practitioners and takes into consideration both Med Access and Accuro EMR systems. |
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Key Updates
The approach has been co-designed and tested with a task team of Nurse Practitioners and Primary Health Care leaders from across Nova Scotia. Thank you to the following teams from across the province who are piloting/testing the materials during the soft-launch of the approach. Your feedback has been invaluable and has led to improvements:
- Shelburne Family Practice
- North Queens Medical Centre
- Springhill Primary Health Care Clinic
- North Cumberland Collaborative Practice
- Cumberland South Rural Practice
- Woodlawn Medical Clinic
- Dartmouth Medical Centre
- Island Gateway Medical Clinic
Over the months of June and July, we held a number of engagement sessions with Nurse Practitioners across Nova Scotia to provide an overview of the initiative and provide an opportunity to ask questions. We heard from many Nurse Practitioners about how valuable this work will be, and also received feedback about the types of resources needed. We have taken all this feedback into account as we move toward implementation.
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What's Next
The Attachment and Panel Identification Initiative will be launching in the early fall 2021, with a range of resources to support teams and Primary Health Care leaders to undertake this work. Resources will include a Panel Identification Workbook, EMR supplemental guides and how-to videos, implementation stories from Nova Scotia Nurse Practitioners and teams, and more.
Big thanks to Angie Shand (Shelburne Family Practice) and Jillian Cox (North Queens Medical Centre) for their leadership in recording a Med Access EMR how-to demo!
The initiative will continue to use a Plan-Do-Study-Act framework for improvement, with a focus on learning from the process and making adjustments as required.
Stay tuned for launch details to come soon!
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Need a Family Practice Registry |
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If you are a provider looking to accept new patients into your practice, please contact Nova Scotia Health’s Need a Family Practice Registry team to obtain a list of individuals who are seeking a primary care provider in your area.
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Nova Scotia Health Physician Resources
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Exciting Opportunity! Integrate an Early Palliative Approach in Primary Care |
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CAPACITI is an educational program funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to promote the early integration of the palliative care approach in interdisciplinary primary care teams across Canada.
Who is CAPACITI for? Generalist primary care providers (not palliative care specialists) from across Canada who want to embed palliative care approaches into their practice. This includes all health care professionals (e.g., physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, patient coordinators, etc.) who work in primary care and administrative team members (e.g., office assistants and managers). The ideal scenario is to register as a team.
Fee: As a CIHR research project, participating in the CAPACITI program is free, however there are required pre and post program surveys to complete.
Time commitment: The CAPACITI program consists of three modules. The schedule to complete these modules is broken up into terms. 1 term is 4 hours of work over a 3-month period. Participants in the CAPACITI program can register for any module in any of the terms.
Learn more by registering for an introductory session:
For more information about the CAPACITI program, including the schedule of modules:
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Resources to support providers and teams during COVID-19 |
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COVID-19 Hub: The COVID-19 Hub is a resource for all employees and physicians across Nova Scotia to access clinical information to guide the care and management of COVID-19 patients, and includes other information to guide the COVID-19 response, including the latest versions of policies and guidelines.
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Primary Health Care and Chronic Disease Management Network, Nova Scotia Health
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