WIPs – Are Champions an Effective Strategy for Improving Knowledge Use and Outcomes in Healthcare Settings?

Wilmer John Santos is currently a Master of Science student in the School of Nursing at the University of Ottawa. His thesis focused on understanding broadly the literature surrounding champions within the health care literature and to conduct a systematic review of published articles and non-published theses and dissertations that evaluated the effectiveness of champions, independent of other implementation strategies, in increasing the use of innovations or improving outcomes in health care settings.

Wilmer has completed his Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of Ottawa in 2015 and is currently working as a registered nurse on a surgical unit for general surgery, hepatobiliary and ophthalmology at the Ottawa Hospital. He has received certification in Medical Surgical Nursing (CMSN [C]) from the Canadian Association of Nursing. Wilmer has completed the online champions workshop offered by the Registered Nurses of Ontario and was a champion for implementation initiatives at the Ottawa Hospital.

In general, Wilmer is interested in learning and understanding champions, implementation, context, and the relationships existing between these three concepts. Wilmer has started working as a research coordinator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, where he hopes to continue learning more about implementation science and advance his research skills.