Our Activities

Now that you’ve visited our About Us page and know why SKIP is working to improve children’s pain management, learn what we’re doing to make a difference!

Identifying & Filling Gaps

An essential part of our work is confirming the needs of those who benefit from and use research findings.

Needs Assessment

SKIP takes a user-informed approach to knowledge mobilization. A Needs Assessment Survey was launched in August 2018 to confirm the needs of knowledge users (including patients, caregivers, health professionals, administrators, and policy makers) and to organize current resources and evidence. SKIP ensures that the tools and resources we develop and promote are informed by stakeholders that will use this evidence.

Let’s SKIP: Call for Patient Partners

A Patient Partner is someone with lived experience of pain, including patients, caregivers, family, and friends. SKIP has a network of more than ninety patient partners, including patients and caregivers, and is always looking to connect with new partners to match network activities and opportunities.

Opioids and Our Children

On February 27, 2020, SKIP and Healthcare Excellence Canada (formerly the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement) hosted an Opioids and Our Children scoping meeting to inform effective and safe prescribing and use of opioids for acute pain in children. More than 30 stakeholders participated, including members of the Canadian Pain Task Force and patient partners.

Producing and Promoting Valuable Tools

We collaborate with our partners to produce and promote evidence-based tools to ensure solutions get into the hands of people who can put them into practice.

HSO: Pediatric Pain Management Standard

SKIP has partnered with the Health Standards Organization (HSO) to improve the quality and safety of care for all children through the creation of a Pediatric Pain Management Standard. This standard facilitates institutional change in children’s pain management by supporting efforts to access, adopt, and implement evidence. The person-centered philosophy of the HSO is consistent with SKIP’s Patients Included approach.

Partnerships with Scientific Journals

SKIP partnered with Pediatric & Neonatal Pain, a new multidisciplinary journal, for two open-access special issues showcasing innovative knowledge mobilization in pediatric and neonatal pain management from around the world. Special issues focused on neonatal pain (published September 2020) and pediatric pain (published December 2020).

Children’s Healthcare Canada Spark: Live Webinars

SKIP has co-hosted seven Children’s Healthcare Canada Spark: Live webinars, attracting approximately 1200 registrants. These webinars offer the chance to share evidence and promote its use in practice and policy with the Canadian children’s health community. Topics have included COVID-19 and its impact on families, mobilizing virtual care, patient engagement, and diagnostic uncertainty in pediatric chronic pain.

The Rounds

SKIP’s partnership with The Rounds has provided a platform to share evidence-based resources to physicians and health professionals across Canada and around the world. During the “Ask Me Anything” events, pediatric pain experts share their knowledge and answer questions from members of The Rounds community about pediatric pain. This partnership ensures evidence-based tools and resources about children’s pain are put into practice.

Facilitating Institutional Change

SKIP is committed to helping Canadian healthcare institutions put evidence into practice to improve care for kids in pain. We’re working with a wide range of partners to connect with institutions across the country and facilitate the adoption of best practices.

ChildKind International

ChildKind certification is a global standard of institutional commitment to pediatric pain management. SKIP works in partnership with ChildKind International to assist children’s healthcare institutions in moving towards ChildKind certification. To date, SKIP has helped four Canadian children’s hospitals move closer to certification.

Knowledge Mobilization Workshop

In October 2019, SKIP hosted a two-day knowledge mobilization workshop in Toronto, facilitated by Dr. Melanie Barwick from The Hospital for Sick Children, that provided formal training to 21 provincial, national, and international stakeholders. Participants learned new approaches to better support knowledge mobilization initiatives around pediatric pain management in their organizations. SKIP has also continued to utilize the tools from this workshop to build capacity and excellence in knowledge mobilization with researchers through our Jump in With SKIP program.

SKIP Affiliate Designation

The SKIP Affiliate designation was created for institutions that demonstrate leadership and a commitment to mobilizing evidence to improve children’s pain management, and want to become official members of SKIP’s national network. To learn more about how your institution can benefit from the Affiliate designation, click here.

Raising Awareness and Kickstarting Conversation

SKIP is increasing awareness and fostering a sense of urgency among the general public about children’s pain. We’re hosting and participating in events and media activities and generating engagement and dialogue across our digital platforms.

Launch Events

In the spring of 2019, SKIP held four high-profile events in Halifax, Toronto, Ottawa, and Edmonton to launch our network. Hundreds of participants across the country attended these live events. Virtually, SKIP reached over eight million views on livestreams and the social media event hashtag #ItDoesntHaveToHurt trended locally, nationally, and internationally.

SKIP's Day on Parliament Hill

SKIP hosted a “Day on the Hill” to connect SKIP with various parliamentarians, and the SKIP team was welcomed and acknowledged in Senate in a speech made by Senator Colin Deacon. The event concluded with a reception in Senate that provided informal opportunities to engage around the topic of pain in children.

Canadian Pain Task Force Atlantic Regional Workshop

In January 2020, Health Canada and the Canadian Pain Task Force (CPTF) hosted the Atlantic Regional Workshop, a one-day knowledge exchange event with pain stakeholders from across Atlantic Canada to address the needs of Canadians with chronic pain. SKIP’s goal was to gain regional insights on best, promising, and emerging practices related to access to care, and to determine regional needs and existing gaps and barriers for successful development, implementation and evaluation of best practices.

Conquering the Hurt Conference
November 3, 2020

SKIP partnered with the SickKids Pain Centre for Conquering the Hurt: Pain Care for All - Risk and Resilience, a Patients Included virtual conference with over 300 attendees from across the world and more than 30 highly-renowned speakers from North America including the SickKids President and CEO, Dr. Ronni Cohn. Four key emerging themes were addressed: equity, diversity and inclusion; pain in vulnerable populations; mental health and pain during COVID; and innovative strategies for predicting recovery and resilience.

Best Brains Exchange
January 29, 2020

In January 2020, SKIP collaborated with Federal (Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Health Canada) and Provincial (Research Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Health Authority, IWK Health Centre) partners to bring the Best Brains Exchange (BBE) event to Nova Scotia. The event, titled “Towards a Provincial Pain Strategy for Nova Scotia”, brought together over 60 provincial stakeholders, including CEOs from provincial health authorities and Nova Scotia's Chief Medical Officer of Health. Click here to learn more.

Online Presence

SKIP has a following of more approximately 5000 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Our hashtag #ItDoesntHavetoHurt has a reach of more than one million per month. Our newsletter, In the Loop, goes out to a subscriber list of over 2500 each month. Follow @kidsinpain to keep up with SKIP and to get access to new and exciting pediatric pain tools and resources, and click here to subscribe to In the Loop.

The Conversation Canada

SKIP has partnered with The Conversation Canada to co-produce and disseminate pediatric pain-related articles. The Conversation Canada is an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community, delivered directly to the public.

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Anyone can be a champion for kids in pain!

Want to find out how? Get in touch.