Dynamic Health round-up posts keep you informed about implementation and use of Dynamic Health at Nova Scotia Health. They highlight any new priority projects and events, as well as updates to our Workplace Notes and Custom Workplace Skills.
Updates: Reviewed Skills and Workplace Notes
We receive feedback submissions about Dynamic Health skills on an ongoing basis through the Suggest an Edit form and through partnerships with departments and teams.
We continue to process skill reviews received as a part of our second skill review push up to and including March 8th, 2024.
Reviewed: New Workplace Note
- Assisting With Needle Thoracostomy
- Preventing and Treating Fluid and Electrolyte Imbalances
- Testing for COVID-19
- Preventing Surgical Risk Factors Related to Fluid-Electrolyte Status
- Using a Fall Risk Assessment Tool
- Managing Patients After Chemical Exposure
- Initiating Transcutaneous Pacing in Adults
- Performing Initial Assessment of Full-Term Laboring Patients
Reviewed: No Workplace Note
- Using a Gastric Feeding Tube for Continuous Feeding
- Assessing False Labor Braxton Hicks Contractions
- Monitoring Patients During First Stage of Labor
- Assessing and Monitoring Patients With Acute Skull Fracture
- Administering Oral Rehydration Therapy to Children and Adolescents
- Inserting a Winged-Needle Catheter
New Custom Skills
- Using the PronatorPlus™ (Melior Motus) for Positioning, Repositioning and/or Lateral Transfer
- Skin and Wound Care: Performing a Wound Culture and Susceptibility Swab (C&S)
Health Promotion in March and Dynamic Health Topics
March 2024 marks the promotion of:
- Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
- National Poison Prevention Week, March 19th to 25th
In recognition of these health promotion events, we encourage you to engage with the curated list of Dynamic Health content below.
If you spot any Skills below that you feel need a Workplace Note, consider being a reviewer! Fill out our Suggestions for Skills form with your notes and we will get in touch!
Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month
- Skills/Procedures
- Disease Overviews
- Care Interventions
- Signs & Symptoms
National Poison Prevention Week
The Atlantic Canada Poison Centre provides our local guidance on poisoning information. Dynamic Health content may be used in combination with their recommendations.
- Skills/Procedures
- Disease Overviews
- Care Interventions
- Signs & Symptoms
Dynamic Health Project Team
Gloria Connolly, RN, BScN, NCA, WOCC(c), GNC(c)
Clinical Nurse Educator, (CNE)
Interprofessional Practice & Learning
Leah MacDonald
Professional Practice Leader
Interprofessional Practice & Learning, COVID-19 Response
Katie McLean
Librarian Educator
Interprofessional Practice & Learning, Library Services
Margaret Meier
Policy Lead
Policy Office
Ann Slaunwhite
Library Technician
Interprofessional Practice & Learning, Library Services
(6). Click on each treatment option for further details (7).
For many Nova Scotia Health team members, sharing documents is an essential part of the workday. But as you may have noticed, there are many ways to link to documents or share URLs. In this post, we’ll share best practices to help make sure the links you share are inclusive, accessible, and most importantly, usable!
Before we dive in, let’s make sure we understand some key words:
Best practices
1. When adding a hyperlink, be sure the linked text appropriately describes what you are linking to.
Don’t hyperlink non-informative phrases like, “click here”, “read more”, or “view here”, etc.
Example:
Want to learn more about accessibility? Click here!
Do hyperlink the title or description of the link.
Example:
Want to learn more about accessibility? Check out: Best practices for accessible links
Why does it matter?
When we hyperlink instructions, like adding a link to the words “click here” or “read more,” we are not giving the user enough information about where the link goes. When these types of links appear one after one another, it’s difficult to differentiate between them, which can create a frustrating user experience.
This practice makes it more difficult for those using screen readers to identify the link’s purpose. When a screen reader comes across a URL, it reads the associated text aloud, as well as the written URL. Often, these URLs are lengthy and an unpredictable combination of characters and numbers. Appropriately labeling your URLs can help screen reader users know exactly what to expect when selecting your link (Microsoft, n.d.).
Descriptively naming your hyperlinks also allows search engines (like Google) to use your descriptive text as metadata to appropriately rank search results. This means you will get more intentional visitors to your content because the information stored about your URL is accurate.
You may have noticed that Microsoft Office 365 products have already started doing this for you. For instance, when you copy and paste a hyperlink into the body of an email, Outlook now automatically changes the visible text associated with the hyperlink to the title of the document (A) instead of the URL (B). The same is true when adding URLs within other Microsoft Office 365 products like Word or PowerPoint. These links look something like this:
2. For printed resources, include the written URL as well as your descriptive hyperlinked text.
If you are creating content that will be used both in print and online, including the descriptive link and the written URL ensures equal access for all users to the resource you are linking to. Those using the print copy may need to enter the URL manually into a computer, tablet, or smartphone, but having the written URL provides them with enough information to access the resource.
Don’t assume everyone is reading your content online. Be mindful of the digital divide and add written URLs for those using print resources.
Do add the written URL beside or below the hyperlinked descriptive text.
Why does it matter?
In this day and age, it’s easy to assume everyone has access to reliable internet. Unfortunately, a ‘digital divide’ still exists in many communities in Canada (Currie, Ronquillo. & Dick, 2014; Latulippe, Hamel, & Giroux, 2017). Researchers note that this divide “persists along lines of social inequalities (i.e., education, urban versus rural, income, age, and immigration status)” (Ismond et al., 2021).
When creating print resources for the public (like patients, families, and support persons), including a descriptive hyperlink and a written URL allows all readers to access the same information. The written URL (C) gives them sufficient information to find the resource at a later time, when they have access to the internet (like at a public library, community center, or loved one’s home, for example).
Remember, if you are creating print resources and the software you are using automatically changes the URL to match the title of the document (like Outlook, Word, or PowerPoint), be sure to add the written URL beside or below it so that your hard-copy readers can use your links, too.
3. Use ScreenTips
When hyperlinking within a Microsoft product, you can also change what text appears when the cursor hovers over a link (D). In the ‘Insert Hyperlink’ pop-up window, select, ‘ScreenTip…’ in the top right. Use this window to edit the URL addess, the descriptive text that will be hyperlinked, as well as what will appear when the user hovers over the link.
As technology evolves, there are bound to be new ways to share links and URLs. Keeping up to date on how to make your links usable and accessible helps ensure your intended audience can access whatever resource you’re sharing, reducing user frustration and broken links.
Happy sharing!
References
1. Currie, L. M., Ronquillo, C., & Dick, T. (2014). Access to internet in rural and remote Canada. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 201, 407–412.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24943574/
2. Latulippe, K., Hamel, C., & Giroux, D. (2017). Social Health Inequalities and eHealth: A Literature Review With Qualitative Synthesis of Theoretical and Empirical Studies. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(4), e136. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.6731
3. Ismond, K. P., Eslamparast, T., Farhat, K., Stickland, M., Spence, J. C., Bailey, R. J., Abraldes, J. G., Spiers, J. A., & Tandon, P. (2021). Assessing Patient Proficiency with Internet-Connected Technology and Their Preferences for E-Health in Cirrhosis. Journal of Medical Systems, 45(7), 72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-021-01746-3
4. Microsoft. (2024, July 25). Make your Word documents accessible to people with disabilities. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/make-your-word-documents-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-d9bf3683-87ac-47ea-b91a-78dcacb3c66d?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us
Kallen Rutledge
Librarian Educator, Patient Education Pamphlets Lead
Nova Scotia Hospital, Central Zone
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