How a health ministry helped staff understand and apply research evidence — over lunch

Number 4, 2006

With competing priorities and hourly deadlines, policy makers and managers can find it difficult to find the time to learn about new research in their field. But when learning time is cut down to one hour a month and made interactive, it becomes far more manageable.

That’s why staff at the Nova Scotia Department of Health created a series of monthly events focused on developing presentation and critical appraisal skills, drawing on a model found in academia and teaching hospitals.

“These sessions were the brain child of a few mid-level bureaucrats who got tired of lots of talk but little walk when it comes to evidence-based decision-making,” says Rick Manuel, director of policy and planning at Nova Scotia Health Promotion.

Initially called “health policy journal club meetings,” the events focused on topics ranging from the role of the private sector in healthcare to the need for diversity and social inclusion in primary healthcare. While the events were helpful to some, the impact was initially quite limited.

“The quality of the presentations was often stellar and the discussions rich,” says Mr. Manuel, “but the attendance was predictably small and pretty much confined to policy analysts who saw it mostly as a developmental opportunity. After all, the learning was supposed to be its own reward — it was brown bags only and no free lunch!”

Things turned around when a small, self-appointed steering committee got together and made a pitch to senior members of the Department of Health that the sessions be re-named “Just for the Health of It,” that the content be more applied, and that each session include a free lunch.

Focusing on the broader social determinants of health, recent presentations have included Nova Scotia’s new immigration strategy, an annotated bibliography on inequity and chronic disease in Atlantic Canada,¹ and a new provincial policy initiative on community development and capacity-building. Branches now take turns sponsoring the lunches as a small but tangible reward for people willing to forego their lunch hour to learn more about the health policy environment. Door prizes have even crept into the mix.

Evaluations are showing positive results, Mr. Manuel says. “People are saying it’s filling a need and they’re getting exposed to information that they wouldn’t otherwise know about.”

Presenters are also reaping rewards from the lunchtime sessions. They get instant and often spirited feedback from some of their harshest critics (their own colleagues and peers). And perhaps more importantly, listeners often become advocates and champions themselves — both internally and externally — for specific policy initiatives and using evidence in policy.

“These luncheons have made a significant difference to the awareness of research issues and policy directions in both health and health promotion,” agrees Dr. Jim Millar, chief of program delivery at the Department of Health. “Like so many governmental organizations, many management and policy staff don’t have time to read everything that they’d like to, especially journal articles,” he says. “By giving them and others a venue to hear about and discuss current policy research and new initiatives, we’re taking a big step in the right direction.”

¹ The Tides of Change. Addressing Inequity and Chronic Disease in Atlantic Canada. A Discussion Paper. 2003. Prepared by Karen Hayward and Ronald Colman, GPI Atlantic, for the Population and Public Health Branch, Atlantic Regional Office, Health Canada.

For more information, please contact Rick Manuel at manuelr@gov.ns.ca.