Canada Summer Jobs 2016: Deadline Extended

The deadline to apply for funding for a summer student through the Canada Summer Jobs Program has been extended to March 11, 2016.

Private, public, and not-for-profit employers are eligible for this funding. Not-for profit employers can receive funding for up to 100% of minimum wage; public and private sector employers can receive funding for up to 50% of minimum wage. Additional funding is available to cover the cost of accommodating students with disabilities in the workplace. The job must provide meaningful work experience for the student, be full-time (3o-40 hours per week), and have a duration of 6-16 weeks. Students employed through this program are between 15 and 30 years old, were full-time students in the previous academic year, and intend to return to full-time studies in the next one. They must be legally entitled to work in Canada  — this includes Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and persons with refugee status; foreign students are ineligible. For more information and a step-by-step guide to the application procedure, visit the Canada Summer Jobs page at Service Canada. AFHTO members have had success hiring students for a number of different projects including clean-up of EMR data.  A number of them have gone on to work for our members permanently, including some of our QIDS Specialists!

• See our list of placement and practicum programs for students [opens an Excel spreadsheet]
• See a list of other funding opportunities for students in your team [opens an Excel spreadsheet]

Related documents

• North York FHT Student Handbook (roster management) [PDF]
• Health Services/Health Information Management Preceptor Handbook – Ryerson [PDF]
• Practicum Task List (timeline) for HSM/HIM Practica – Ryerson [PDF]
• About HSM/HIM Practicum – Information for Potential Sites – Ryerson [PDF]
• Letter to Placement FHTs/NPLCs – St. Lawrence College [opens a Word document]
• Information about the HIM practicum – St. Lawrence College [opens a Word document]
• Appendix A – Curriculum Structure – St. Lawrence College [opens a Word document]
• MSc eHealth Internship Recruitment Dates & Salary Guidelines – McMaster [PDF]
• Internship Brochure – McMaster [PDF]
• eHealth Brochure – McMaster [PDF]

[original post & updates for D2D 3.0]

Need help getting ready for D2D 3.0? Consider hiring a student!

You will be able to submit data for D2D 3.0 from December 3 until January 15.   And you might want some help to get ready for that. Students can be a big resource for teams.  If you think you could use someone for nearly a week in Dec (14-18), please contact Barb Nayler with the Health Information Management program at St. Lawrence College.  Even though St. Lawrence is in Kingston, students are available across the province, especially in Toronto and Ottawa.  Several of our fabulous QIDSS are health information management professionals from this or similar programs, so there is a really good chance these students have the right skills to be helpful. If you think you need someone longer than 4 days, there are other options. Read on, and follow the links for more! You’ll find links to lists of student placement programs, provincial and federal government incentives, and guidelines on how to recruit, train, and support your visiting students.

Hiring a Student: Overview

Hiring a student to clean EMR data can be a really rewarding experience.  The incentive programs for physicians provide financial rewards for better coded data.  Teams will be better able to identify candidates for chronic disease management programs.  Everyone will be better able to track progress of patients with chronic diseases and make sure they are getting the kind of follow-up they need.  From a pragmatic perspective, it will be easier to do QIP reporting and participate in D2D, adding your voice to strengthen your association’s ability to advocate for what you need.  And you may learn something too! There are many students in health programs who both want and need placements as part of their programs – they can add their energy and fresh knowledge to your team.  And finally, hiring a student may give your team an advantage in recruiting future staff, physicians or otherwise. You don’t have to start from scratch with hiring a student.  Several teams have been doing this for years, assigning students to help clean up EMR data, doing things like reconciling the roster with MOHLTC, making sure chronic diseases and risk factors like smoking are coded in the appropriate problem lists etc.  AFHTO has compiled a tool kit based on these experiences to share the learnings with other members of AFHTO.  It includes step by step guidance, starting with how to make the case for better EMR data with physicians and other decision-makers and estimating the costs and benefits of the project right down to posting and filling the position and creating the training handbook for the students.

Checklist for Hiring A Student

The following are the steps to consider when planning a student placement:

Planning and Funding

Decide that you want to clean up your historical data.

• Why should you do this? What’s Important to YOUR Practice?
• Budgeting and Incentive Programs
• Sample draft physician agreement note
• Consider the different types of students potentially available

Recruiting A Student 

1. Determine the specific activities you want the student to undertake and form your job description around this.
2. Start the recruitment process: This varies according to choice of student and school.
3. Interview and select candidates.

Training and Hosting the Student

1. Enroll your team to participate in/send a student to an orientation session:
2. Prepare to host the student:
3. Mentor/monitor student (support to be developed)

Evaluating the Impact of the student work (More information to come) To ensure that teams are receiving value in the projects undertaken by students it is important that teams evaluate the outcomes of the  projects e.g. a clean roster, better coding of data leading to improved billings, to the time and cost of bringing in a student. For more information please contact Catherine Macdonald.