The Grand Prize of the 2019 National Bank Clinical Innovation Competition of the Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (OIIQ), which aims to promote the advancement and influence of the nursing profession, was awarded to the McGill-Accueil Bonneau Clinic project, led by McGill’s Ingram School of Nursing (ISoN). The award was presented to project co-leads Françoise Filion and Hugo Marchand from the ISoN by Sylvie Dubois, National Director of Nursing Care and Services at the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec, during the 2019 OIIQ conference earlier this week.
“It is a great honour to receive this award,” says Françoise Filion, Assistant Professor at the ISoN. “I always wanted to organize a nurse-led clinic for underserved populations. Dr. Anita Gagnon (Associate Dean and Director of the ISoN) gave me the mandate to start a nurse-led clinic in January 2017 and in September 2017 the clinic was up and running with a nurse-clinician and four students doing their community practicum. I am thankful for the precious help of Hugo who collaborated with me in the organization of the clinic. I am very proud of the clinic. I am so happy we are able to touch the lives of so many men and to support them with our nursing care. I am also very grateful for Accueil Bonneau’s openness and generosity in accepting student nurses, and for providing us with an opportunity to train them in the scope of practice of a community health nurse. My hope is that, in the near future, we can open more nurse-led clinics with other underserved populations, including Indigenous populations.”
“To me this prize is significant not only for the ISoN, but for the nursing profession as a whole as it promotes our competencies and autonomy,” adds Hugo Marchand, Academic Director of the Learning Laboratories at the ISoN. “As soon as Francoise asked me to help her with this project I knew it would open great possibilities for the profession and for the ISoN. I worked with Francoise to look at the space, equipment, human resources and professional responsibilities that we needed to ensure we had down before implementing this project. Receiving this prize is a wonderful surprise recognizing the work we have put into this project. We are especially proud given that we are the first school of nursing to receive this award. It proves that clinical innovation can come from educational institutions as well. Finally, we also have to remember that behind this prize are the clients that we have helped since the beginning of the project and the impact that we have been able to have on their lives.”
Congratulations Françoise, Hugo and all those involved in this initiative!
Read the official press release here (French only).
November 29, 2019