Abstract
Vancouver Island lies just off the southwest coast of Canada. Separated from the large urban area of Greater Vancouver (estimated population 2.17 million) by the Georgia Strait, this geographical location poses unique challenges in delivering health care to a mixed urban, rural and remote population of approximately 730 000 people living on the main island and the surrounding Gulf Islands. These challenges are offset by opportunities for the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) to collaborate with four publicly funded post-secondary institutions in planning and implementing responses to existing and emerging health care workforce needs.In this commentary, we outline strategies we have found successful in aligning health education and training with local health needs in ways that demonstrate socially accountable outcomes. Challenges encountered through this process (i.e. regulatory reform, post-secondary policy reform, impacts of an ageing population, impact of private, for-profit educational institutions) have placed demands on us to establish and build on open and collaborative working relationships. Some of our successes can be attributed to evidence-informed decision-making. Other successes result from less tangible but no less important factors. We argue that both rational and "accidental" factors are significant – and that strategic use of "accidental" features may prove most significant in our efforts to ensure the delivery of high-quality health care to our communities.
Highlights
Delivery of health services in Canada has been under significant stress for at least the past decade [1]
Over the past three years, senior leaders from the Vancouver Island Health Authority have been meeting with the academic deans from the four Island post-secondary institutions
While the numbers of staff requiring educational support in technically specific fields was often very small, we discovered that we could meet these needs with minimal financial investment from the educational programmes because the necessary competences could be learned from existing programming
Summary
Delivery of health services in Canada has been under significant stress for at least the past decade [1]. Canada leads the developed world in projected increase in population over the age of 65 by the year 2030 [3] Such demographic forecasting has encouraged us to seek ways to work together to solve our mutual concerns: for the post-secondary sector this involves a strong and steady supply of well-qualified applicants for programmes; for the health sector the concern revolves around having a steady supply of appropriately qualified applicants to fill vacant staff positions. Allied health professional programming (e.g. physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nutrition, radiation therapy, respiratory therapy) has historically been offered only in Vancouver, practical experience is often gained in health facilities operated by VIHA
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