2022 Agenda

The pandemic created various unique communications challenges for leaders and also led to unprecedented increases in demands for both operational and strategic communication within organizations. This session will touch on how various healthcare organizations approached strategic and leadership communication during COVID-19, and how those experiences have shaped our approaches to this important function moving forward.

Key Session Takeaways include:

• When, and when not, to showcase your leader
• Leadership communication strategies that resonate with key audiences and your workforce
• The power of “surround sound” communications, not one-size-fits-all
• Making strategic choices of where to focus your team’s time and efforts to maximize the impact

We are all used to social media and its use both for work and leisure. Increasingly it has become our key method of communication with the public and an important platform for getting our messages out to a wider audience.

Even if you are not the person responsible for posting on social media, on some level, we all still find ourselves involved in the strategy and execution.

Join in on the discussion as we break down some of the lessons learned in communicating healthcare-related information through social media over the past year.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok: When to use one platform over the other
• Dealing with “trolls”: When to engage and when to block
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – what are we seeing out there that works and doesn’t work

With healthcare teams being more integrated, and the speed with which information must travel increasing, there has never been a more vital time to optimize your internal communications strategy.

Learn how your organization can improve your internal communications to drive engagement and efficacy. 

Some of the key discussion topics will include:

• Best practices for engaging physicians and other front-line staff
• Building morale among your team, and creating dynamic collaborations
• Creating supporting dialogue with leadership
• Communicating the value of staff within the organization’s strategic plan

There will be moments in everyone’s career when there are critical events that will need to communicated successfully to the Ministry, health leadership teams, internal teams, and/or the general public.

From violent patients to mass casualties, there are many different scenarios and protocols you need to be aware of that will be discussed in this presentation.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• How do you plan for crisis communications when the crisis has no end such as Covid?
• How certain health team roles differ during codes, such as Code Green, Silver, Black, etc.
• How to best communicate up and down the chain of command
• Best practices in working with the media
• Communicating with the public on ER closures and other services

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have become voracious consumers of health care news. This brings unprecedented pressure on health leaders to communicate clearly on complicated health care issues and topics.

“Controlling” the media was never a realistic goal – even less so in today’s instantaneous digital environment. Where once we may have read a newspaper or watched the evening news, we are now getting our information on our phones or watching online. But having a better understanding of the media will help you navigate it.

This session is designed to take you through the necessary steps to work with journalists, prepare for an interview, manage a message around an issue hitting the media and leverage the media to get your message the right audience – often your staff, community and patients.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Debunk myths and misconceptions around journalism;
• Examine how the health care media landscape is changing in the digital age;
• Provide the tools to identify, recognize and take advantage of media opportunities and respond to media requests; and
• Offer tips on interview techniques and spokesperson prep for complicated and challenging topics ever present in the health care landscape.

Sooner or later, all organizations will have to manage a CEO transition, and the communications team will play a vital role in the transition. Handled well, a CEO transition is an opportunity for renewal and re-engagement with staff, physicians, donors, and the community. Handled poorly, CEO transitions can lead to confusion, lack of strategic prioritization, and loss of focus and talent.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Insights into the role the communications team plays in the strategic development and execution of a CEO transition;

• Best practices in CEO transition planning;

• Lessons learned on working with the new CEO to facilitate a smooth transition

This session will describe the journey of Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, a hospital that was under Ministry of Health Supervision for a period of 18 months and has since emerged as a trusted entity by all stakeholders.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

The Who and How:

• Internal stakeholders: being present, curious and direct
• External community stakeholders: building partnerships
• Community: be everywhere building bridges
• Government: ask first how you can help
• Media: tell the truth: always, consistently & when you’re worried most

The What:

• Relentless focus on achieving a Strategic Plan
• Scorecard results translated for lay audience
• Sharing the good news all around
• Values Based Decision making: Equate Transparency to Accountability

The Results:

• Improved staff and physician engagement – it’s how we survived the pandemic together
• Greater partnering across health care system– it’s also how we survived the pandemic together
• Community support – financial and in kind
• Successive investments in new programs and services
• Positive media relations

All healthcare organizations are committed to EDI best practices, however, they are not always confident in executing those practices.

Creating messaging that is sensitive to EDI is essential, but difficult in practice. In this deep dive, we look at how organizations can deliver effective messages to their diverse communities while remaining humble and open to feedback.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Negotiating and meeting the changing language around EDI
• Practical considerations for moving beyond flags and pronouns
• How to communicate with patients and the public where health equity is a serious issue
• How to demonstrate to the community you are progressing
• Understanding key phrases and words to avoid – and some to include
• How smaller organizations can adapt
• Where the biggest missteps occur for communicators
• Ensuring supportive tools such as apps are inclusive

During the past two years, nurses and healthcare workers demonstrated unprecedented strength and resilience in the face of a devastating pandemic; they worked over-time, felt the enduring heat, sweat and exhaustion under their masks and face shields, cared for the sickest patients and experienced loss and trauma both in their personal and professional lives.

Survey results released by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO)’s 2021 Work and Wellbeing Survey, indicated that 90 per cent of nurses experienced at least moderate stress due to the pandemic with mid-career nurses reporting the highest levels; early-career nurses reported the greatest challenges with coping. Thirteen per cent of registered nurses (RNs) aged 26-35 reported they were very likely to leave the profession after the pandemic.

As the health system begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals have a duty and responsibility to meet nurses and healthcare workers where they are. In their report, the RNAO urged employers to focus on reduced workload, increased mentorship opportunities in the workplace and access to mental health supports.

In November 2021, Michael Garron Hospital’s (MGH) Corporate Communications team, Human Resources department and the office of the Chief Nursing Executive, partnered to launch the hospital’s first digital nursing recruitment campaign highlighting seven nursing-specific initiatives to respond to the needs and values of today’s nurses in a post-COVID-19 recovery climate.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• Using data to drive results: MGH new hires survey sets the stage for evidence-based nursing recruitment campaign
• Exploring digital and social media advertising to target qualified nursing candidates and achieve recruitment results
• The power of storytelling: Sharing real-world staff career journeys and involving hospital nurses in the campaign to bring the MGH brand to life
• Analytics and results: Nursing campaign rollout, timing, results and next steps

The SickKids VS initiative began in 2016 and became incredibly successful. SickKids broke their fundraising efforts, but the goal continues.

Their campaign “SickKids VS” was also successful in building engagement and reach across all media. They not only won several awards; they created a movement within the GTA.

This discussion will focus on how the goals of the campaign were developed and executed, and some of the outcomes.

Key Session Takeaways Include:

• How to effectively plan a campaign, from targeting your audience to working with influencers
• How to execute on the steps from creative to testing to going live
• What the engagement and media metrics from the SickKids Foundation Campaign shows
• Lessons learned, and what would or could be done differently