ArticleHealth research policy and systems2020
Communities of practice in Alberta Health Services: advancing a learning organisation.
Article in Health research policy and systems, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sanitation ofFrontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Four distinct models of learning health systems: Strength through diversity.Learning health systems · 2025Article
- How can a community of practice support healthcare professionals navigating new roles? a case study of genetic counsellors employed to work in medical specialities.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Using communities of practice in adult social care to build research capacity and foster best practice: a qualitative evaluation.NIHR open research · 2025Article
- Bridging the gap: a qualitative process evaluation from the perspectives of healthcare professionals of an audit-and-feedback-based intervention to improve transition to adult care for young people living with type 1 diabetes.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- How to use communities of practice to support change in learning health systems: A landscape of roles and guidance for management.Learning health systems · 2024Article
- How successful was the use of a community of practice for the implementation of evidence-based practices for heart failure within the United States Department of Veterans Affairs: Insights from a formative evaluation.Health research policy and systems · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn 2009, Alberta Health Services (AHS) became Canada's first and largest fully integrated healthcare system, involving the amalgamation of nine regional health authorities and three provincial services. Within AHS, communities of practice (CoPs) meet regularly to learn from one another and to find ways to improve service quality. This qualitative study examined CoPs as an applied practice of a learning organisation along with their potential influence in a healthcare system by exploring the perspectives of CoP participants.
methodsA collective case study method was used to enable the examination of a cross-section of cases in the study organisation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 participants representing 28 distinct CoPs. Using Senge's framework of a learning organisation, CoP influences associated with team learning and organisational change were explored.
resultsCoPs in AHS were described as diverse in practice domains, focus, membership boundaries, attendance and sphere of influence. Using small-scale resource investments, CoPs provided members with opportunities for meaningful interactions, the capacity to build information pathways, and enhanced abilities to address needs at the point of care and service delivery. Overall, CoPs delivered a sophisticated array of engagement and knowledge-sharing activities perceived as supportive of organisational change, systems thinking, and the team learning practice critical to a learning organisation.
conclusionCoPs enable the diverse wealth of knowledge embedded in people, local conditions and special circumstances to flow from practice domain groups to programme and service areas, and into the larger system where it can effect organisational change. This research highlights the potential of CoPs to influence practice and broad-scale change more directly than previously understood or reported in the literature. As such, this study suggests that CoPs have the potential to influence and advance widespread systems change in Canadian healthcare.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.