A Community of Practice (CoP) is a community or group of people who have made a commitment to be available to each other, offer support to share learning, and to consciously develop new knowledge. A CoP makes the intentional commitment to advance the field of practice and to share those discoveries with anyone engaged in similar work (Wheatley 2005). In SHRTN, a Community of Practice is a group of people who come together to exchange information and knowledge on a specific topic related to seniors’ health and health care.
SHRTN CoP members include paid and unpaid caregivers, researchers, policy-makers, educators, specialist librarians and others who are interested in the topic.
Evidence-Based Practice requires that decisions about health care are based on the best available, current, valid and relevant evidence. These decisions should be made by those receiving care, informed by the tacit and explicit knowledge of those providing care, within the context of available resources (Martin Dawes et al, 2005).
Information Specialists are qualified library technicians or librarians. In SHRTN, Information Specialists know how to access the body of knowledge that exists to support seniors’ health care. They also understand the needs of the
caregivers who work with seniors. They are adept at understanding client information needs and at finding manageable, relevant, evidence-based resources to meet those needs. They also understand the learning styles of
adults and are able to prepare and deliver training courses to meet the information needsof their clients.
Knowledge brokering is about bringing people together, to help them build relationships, uncover needs and share ideas and evidence that will let them do their jobs better. It is the human force that makes knowledge transfer (the movement of knowledge from one place or group of people to another) more effective. Knowledge Brokers network to link people to people, as well as people to ideas and resources. They foster knowledge exchange, assist individuals with searching for resources. They know where to look for and how to find information; they can facilitate the critical appraisal and adaptation of evidence-based material to a particular user group. Knowledge Brokers monitor emerging trends and issues in the field and respond to their constituent group’s ever changing information, education and exchange needs.
Knowledge can be defined as information in action (Dubois and Wilkerson, 2008). Knowledge can be explict (i.e. available in written form or oral history), tacit (i.e. information not in written form), and potential (i.e. knowledge buried in data that is collected but not yet used) (Harris and Lusk, 2009).
Knowledge management is the systematic processes, by which knowledge needed for an organization to succeed is created, captured, and shared and leveraged (Harris and Lusk, 2009).
Knowledge translation is the exchange, synthesis and ethically-sound application of knowledge – within a complex system of interactions among researchers and users – to accelerate the capture of the benefits of research for Canadians through improved health, more effective services and
products, and a strengthened health care system (Harris and Lusk, 2009; CIHR, 2006). Knowledge translation is sometimes referred synonymously as knowledge transfer (Harris and Lusk, 2009).
Knowledge mobilization is the process of moving knowledge into active service for the broadest possible common good (Harris and Lusk, 2009;
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 2008) .
Knowledge exchange is the mutual sharing of research and data knowledge (i.e. explicit knowledge) and/or of practice and experience based knowledge (i.e. tacit knowledge) for the purpose of improving practice (Harris and Lusk, 2009). Knowledge exchange can take place face-to-face, over the telephone, or online in real-time, or capturing and sharing stories (Harris and Lusk, 2009). The sharing of evidence via knowledge exchange is an important contributor to the success of knowledge transfer. (Harris and Lusk, 2009; Rycroft-Malone et al., 2007).
A Local Implementation Team is a group of leaders in a geographic region of the province (generally aligned with Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) boundaries. Members meet on a regular basis to:
The Seniors Health Research Transfer Network (SHRTN) is a knowledge exchange network that links researchers with caregivers and policy makers with the goal of sharing information, knowledge, evidence and experience that will lead to improved quality of health and health care for seniors.
The SHRTN Collaborative is a network of networks focused on improving the health and healthcare of seniors in Ontario. Partners in the SHRTN Collaborative include:
The SHRTN Collaborative is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.