RHSRNbc Newsletter - May 2021 edition

Application deadline: May 31, 2021

The RHSRNbc Symposia grant program provides support for rural researchers or
physicians to develop a symposium to explore issues focused on rural health
services for amounts up to $5000. This grant is intended to bring together
academics, rural practitioners, policymakers, citizens, and other stakeholders or
allies whose knowledge and practice can be shared to build upon and advance
the specific area of rural health research, practise or policy. We invite proposals
that aim to develop new knowledge or research questions through
multidisciplinary team engagements, or use the opportunity as a way to support
knowledge dissemination or knowledge translation activities related to their
research evidence.

The symposia grant may be applied to Online or in-person formats based on
public health restrictions applied at the time of application. All applicants should
indicate how their proposed symposia format brings together diverse
stakeholders to approach their topic from multiple perspectives and how it will
influence knowledge development, translation in practice or policy.

For more details on eligibility criteria, check the application form here.

The RHSRNbc fund travel bursaries to be awarded to year 1, 2 and 4 FLEX students who are working on projects that involve rural and remote health activities. Year 1, 2, and 4 bursaries are funded up to a maximum of $500 – $1000 each. These bursaries are intended to subsidize the costs of travel and accommodation related to your FLEX Project. Allowable expenses include transportation to rural communities and accommodation. Funds will be reimbursed after the submission of original receipts and the final report for RHSRNbc. However, due to the unintended consequences of COVID-19, these bursaries are intended to subsidize the costs associated with working on a rural health project remotely. 

Application deadline: April 30, 2021, for Y1 -2 students and Jan 7, 2022, for Y4 students. Please reach out to the research coordinator, Arlin Cherian or UBC Flex advisor for application details.

2020

About

Evidence from current climate science research suggests that anthropogenic activity will cause drastic changes to our environment, including global warming of over 1.5oC in the next 10-30 years, extreme weather patterns, and rising sea levels—some of these changes have already been observed in British Columbia. These environmental impacts have consequences for human health, with natural hazards disproportionately impacting rural populations. The Rural Health Services Research Network of BC (RHSRNbc), in partnership with the Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc), is hosting a research symposium on ‘Planning Resilient Communities and Adapting Rural Health Services in British Columbia: Responding to climate change and ecosystem disruption’ on Nov 30th – Dec 1st, 2020. Please see the symposium event page for symposium goals, agenda, registration information and more.

Learning materials and resources

Click here

Recordings

Session 1 Recording: Amplifying youth voices for climate justice

Session 2 Recording: Community voices and system perspectives

Session 3 Recording: Exploring rural health strategies to respond to climate change and ecosystem disruption

Session 4 Recording: Accountability framework and summary of progress

RHSRNbc 2020 Symposium Proceedings

2020

About

Evidence from current climate science research suggests that anthropogenic activity will cause drastic changes to our environment, including global warming of over 1.5oC in the next 10-30 years, extreme weather patterns, and rising sea levels—some of these changes have already been observed in British Columbia. These environmental impacts have consequences for human health, with natural hazards disproportionately impacting rural populations.

The Rural Health Services Research Network of BC (RHSRNbc), in partnership with the Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc), is hosting a research symposium on ‘Planning Resilient Communities and Adapting Rural Health Services in British Columbia: Responding to climate change and ecosystem disruption’ on Nov 30th – Dec 1st, 2020. Please see the symposium event page for symposium goals, agenda, registration information and more.

Save the date for our upcoming virtual symposium taking place on Zoom on November 30th – Dec 1st, 2020. Register here.

2018

Symposium on Emergency Services, June 2018

On June 2018, key people from RHSRNbc, RCCbc, and BCEMN were in attendance. The RHSRNbc Advisory Committee and research designate consisting of a representative from each university in British Columbia and a member of their organization were invited to attend. Strategic invites (Health Authorities, MoH, BC Ambulance/ Transport / 911 Dispatch) were also made.

The goal of the symposium was to identify the key gaps in understanding and important research questions that need to be answered to support rural emergency services.

The objectives of the event included:

1. Generating a high level overview of the existing evidence related to the capacity of smaller rural ERs and the support structures currently in place to sustain these services.
2. Identifying important gaps in our current understanding.
3. Generating key questions that need to be answered to better understand how rural emergency services attempt to address the needs of the population they serve.
4. Examining the interface between the smaller rural ERs and the larger provincial system of emergency care including communication support (synchronous and asynchronous), the integration of care for high acuity patients, and strategies to sustain quality of care (CPD).
5. Considering the data needed to answer the questions generated.

2017

Symposium on Mental Health and Substance Use, May 2017

The Rural Health Services Research Network of British Columbia (RHSRNbc) hosted a symposium on sustaining and progressing rural mental health and substance use services in British Columbia. This is the second research symposium hosted by the RHSRNbc, with the prior focused on determining evidence needs of sustaining rural health services for maternity services, small surgical services, emergency transport services and clinical telehealth. This year’s symposium was held on May 18^th and 19^th, 2017 in Vancouver and was hosted on the unceded, ancestral and traditional territory of the Musqueam Nation.

The two-day symposium explored the main themes of rural mental health services and substance use through the subthemes of rural emergency services, transport, telehealth and program innovations.

A small, strategically selected group of 22 participants attended the symposium, representing BC post-secondary institutions, BC Health Authorities and the Rural Coordination Centre of BC. This included researchers nominated by members of the RHSRNbc Advisory committees, and participants from Island Health Authority, Interior Health Authority, Centre for Rural Health Research, and the Patient Voices Network.

The purpose of the symposium was to bring together researchers from across British Columbia to facilitate a strategic discussion to advance and refine a rural mental health and substance use services agenda through identification of specific research areas that need to be addressed. Through this two-day symposium, the four subthemes were explored by reviewing existing evidence and then identifying gaps in what we know to propose strategic research questions to advance the rural health services research agenda. Included below are a few of the presentations that had taken place on this day.

2015

Symposium on Maternity Care, May 2015

The Rural Health Services Research Network of British Columbia (RHSRNbc) hosted a research symposium focused on determining evidence needs for sustaining rural health services in Vancouver, BC May 6-8, 2015. The political and strategic context for rural health service planning in British Columbia has evolved over the past several years as ‘rural’ has become a strategic priority for the Ministry of Health. This is evidenced most clearly through the provincial policy paper on Rural Health and the focus on sustaining patient-centered and community care ‘as close to home as reasonably possible.’ This larger context creates opportunities to advance rural health planning, and thus the health of rural residents, based on consolidating evidence from BC and internationally.

The symposium agenda was divided into four thematic areas with half-day sessions on maternity services, small surgical services, emergency transport services, and clinical telehealth. A small strategic invite list of 30 participants consisted of Australian colleagues from the University of Sydney’s University Centre for Rural Health, the RHSRNbc Advisory committee, nominated researchers representing post secondary institutions across British Columbia, the Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia (RCCbc), Perinatal Services of British Columbia (PSBC), the UBC Centre for Rural Health Research (CRHR),
Applied Policy Research Unit (APRU), First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), Interior Health Authority, and students from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

The purpose of the symposium was to bring together researchers from Canada and Australia to facilitate a strategic discussion to advance and refine a rural health services research agenda that would focus on key questions that need to be answered. This was done by addressing four thematic areas to review existing evidence, identify knowledge gaps and propose strategic research questions to advance the rural health services research agenda. These activities where undertaken with recognition of the need to continue to develop rural health research capacity in British Columbia.

• Proceedings for the 2015 Symposium on Maternity Care