Back to It

After months off due to COVID-19, kids rugby at James Bay was finally re-opened. It was off for so long that I wasn’t sure if my kids were ever going to play rugby again. I took the kids and Mom to the MacDonald Park in the morning. Kids were in their cleats ready to go. Mom was also ready with her MP3 player loaded with songs she could dance to. The Mini Rugby Group did a great job assigning kids into their perspective groups and spacing them out. Serena had a hard time starting, but got over it quickly and found herself again in the field. Griffin looked like a big kid as he was able to focus and listen to his coach’s instructions. I was chilling at the sideline with Cole in the sun talking about kids, parents and summer plans.

A great day!

Family Gem

It was family jamming session after dinner tonight. We started out singing Lost Boy in the closet, which was kind of strange but fun. I shared with the kids some tunes I’ve been enjoying lately: G Em Am D. I shared it with the kids, and they liked it too. I proposed we write a song together using this tune. Serena went to work immediately. I was surprised by how quickly she was able to come up with meaningful and lovely lyrics. Griffin helped by making sure the lyrics sounded good and climbing all over me and the guitar while I was playing. Here is the four lines we came up with tonight. Needless to say, I was beyond proud of my little munchkins.

Family Gem

G Em Am D

We are a family, in perfect harmony.

Our love is like a fire, that burns until the end.

Many things we can do, but only when together.

Tomorrow will be brighter, with the sun above the seas.

More to come.

System and Organizational Levels

Today at work, our discussion led to me digging out an old information framework I put together back when I first started with CIHI. The framework consisted of three views: System, Organizational and Technical. Each view consisted of categories, and each category contained information elements. For example, the Structure category was under the System view and contained information elements such as Health System Configuration and Government. Question was raised from my colleagues on the difference between System and Organization Views. It’s been so long since I touched the framework and I didn’t have any good answers to the question. I felt bad for not coming up an answer, so I started to search the literature I reviewed back in 2018 when I worked on the framework. I didn’t come up anything successfully; however, I found an article from Implementation Science on biomedcentral.com. This article talked about the different characteristics from organizational and system levels that influenced implementation of shared decision-making. I thought the content was worthwhile to share.

System and Organizational Characteristics (2018)

According to the authors (Scholl, LaRussa, Hahlweg, Kobrin and Elwyn), organizational-level characteristics influencing the implementation of SDM (shared decision-making) has six main categories: organizational leadership, culture, teamwork, resources, priorities and workflows. Five of the six categories also included some subcategories of characteristics. Besides the six main categories of organizational-level characteristics, there were four system-level characteristics that could influence implementation: incentives, policies and guidelines, culture of health care delivery, and healthcare provider education and licensing.

This information is helpful to shift some of the categories and elements identified in my framework and realign them in both system and organizational views.

Reference: Scholl, LaRussa, Hahlweg, Kobrin and Elwyn (2018). Organizational- and system-level characteristics that influence implementation of shared decision-making and strategies to address them – a scoping review. Accessed from: https://implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13012-018-0731-z.

Second Tooth!

Griffin was having his Chinese class with Nai Nai today. I was making dinner. Then I heard this scream and out came Griffin holding his tooth. He was telling me how he was eating a chip and the chip bumped his tooth off. He showed me his new tooth hole right next to the one that was empty from a couple of days ago. Three days, two teeth! Way to go, Griff!

Also, I cooked dinner on my own tonight. Normally, I cook with Mom. Since Mom’s with Griffin at Chinese class, I cooked without her help. It tasted pretty good actually. I’m getting a handle of this whole culinary thing 🙂

My Little Red Violin

Griffin has asked to learn how to play violin. I was delighted because I used to play violin when I was younger. I brought up my old violin that my Dad brought with him last time he visited. Although it was too big for Griffin, Anya had it fixed so that I could pick it up again one day. I told the kids if they ate all their dinner, I’d play the violin for them. They ate all their dinner, so I played.

It felt like a trip down the memory lane when I opened the case. Tuning the strings and tightening the bow brought me right back to when I was 9 and attending violin lessons. I found “do re mi fa so la ti do” on the violin and that was about all I could do for the kids. They liked it, and we followed up with some guitar strumming (me) and flute playing (Serena). It was fun.

I hope Griffin continues with violin and we could all play our musical instruments after dinner one day. It seems like a fun family activity together.