Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

At a time when Canada's health care system experiences an unprecedented demand and backlog for treatment, clinician burnout continues to be one of the critical challenges in Canada. One of the factors that have been identified as a key contributor to burnout is the completion of documentation within the electronic health record (EHR) system. With two hours of documentation for each hour of patient care, there have been growing concerns among physicians and nurses about how the use of EHR systems are affecting their time and ability to deliver effective care to their patient. However, despite the considerable research and efforts focused on documentation burden, there has been little discussion in the Canadian context about a coordinated approach to address burnout related to documentation burden and use of the EHR. This planning grant will bridge these unmet needs by engaging relevant stakeholders to build a plan to reduce documentation burden for nurses and physicians in Canada. In the first phase, an environmental scan will be conducted to catalogue the current initiatives being implemented in Canada. The second phase will involve engaging stakeholders to understand current priorities and needs to mitigate documentation burden and EHR burnout in Canada. The third phase will consist of planning meetings to develop a national plan for reducing documentation burden in Canada. The findings will collectively inform the planning of a future grant focused on implementing the plan of research and practice initiatives to reduce documentation burden and EHR burnout in Canada.