As season one of WorkShift comes to a close, Shelley Rowan, Interim CEO of the Workers Compensation Board of Nova Scotia is signing off as host of WorkShift. Shelley served as Interim CEO of WCB Nova Scotia and host of WorkShift from December 2022 to August 2023. After 25 years with WCB Nova Scotia, Shelley retired on Sept 1 from the organization.

In this episode, Shelley reflects on what she has learned from some of the brightest leaders and safety champions in Nova Scotia while hosting the WorkShift podcast.

The common theme echoed throughout this season is that workplace safety is about people. We all share the responsibility to keep each other safe at work so we can go home to what matters most at the end of the day. We hope the impactful stories shared on this podcast have left a lasting impression, and will surely inspire a positive change in workplace safety. Thanks to our amazing guests we've had the chance to learn more about the community we live in and about how workplace safety is moving forward here in Nova Scotia.

"It will take all of us learning from each other and working together to make it the place we know it can be." - Shelley Rowan, Interim CEO Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia

We hope you will join us on the next season of Workshift. Until then, thank you for listening and stay safe.

Make sure you follow Workshift, a podcast from the Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia that helps to rewrite the narrative on what makes a healthy, safe and successful workplace.

In 2022, Nova Scotians lost around a million working days to workplace injury. That’s the same as nearly 200 people working full-time for a year. It has a huge impact on those individuals and their families, their workplaces, our healthcare system and the province as a whole.

As leaders, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to minimize that impact. A key member in this work, of course, our province’s doctors, who are often among the first to see workers after an injury occurs. They play a critical role in helping to set workers on a path to a successful recovery and are important members of the return-to-work team. At the same time, Nova Scotia’s physicians are focused on enabling a culture shift in our province to encourage our population to lead healthier, more active lifestyles.

What insights do our province’s medical leaders have about the importance of a safe and timely return to work? Why is staying connected to work after an injury so important for a successful recovery?

Joining us for this episode is Dr. Leisha Hawker and Dr. Manoj Vohra. This past June, Dr. Hawker wrapped up her term as the President of Doctors Nova Scotia, the province’s medical association that represents more than 3,500 physicians. Dr. Hawker is currently a practicing physician at the North End Community Health Centre, the Halifax Newcomer Clinic, and the Regency Park Opioid Use Disorder Clinic. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Doctors Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia College of Family Physicians, and the Healthy Tomorrow Foundation.

Dr. Manoj Vohra is WCB Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Vohra is also a practicing physician who served as the President of Doctors Nova Scotia from 2017-2018. As part of his role as Chief Medical Officer with the WCB, Dr. Vohra works closely with physicians throughout the province to help them support patients who have been injured at work.

In this conversation, we discuss the vital role that work plays in recovery after workplace injury, the long-term effects of being off work, how to support employees in returning to work and the importance of understanding the whole person when building a return to work plan.

Make sure you follow WorkShift, a podcast from the Workers' Compensation Board that helps to rewrite the narrative on what makes a healthy, safe and successful workplace.

In Nova Scotia and across Canada, we are facing an issue with the workforce that we have never really faced before. We simply don't have enough skilled workers to do the work that needs to be done. We don't have enough skilled workers to fill the jobs that are available across the country. At the WCB, we think that part of the solution to this problem might be right in front of us.

In Nova Scotia, more time is lost to workplace injury than it is anywhere else across the country. Almost a million days were lost last year to workplace injury. But what if we could keep those skilled workers safe and healthy at work? What if for those people who did have a workplace injury, we were able to bring them back into the workplace with new and different thinking that would keep them at work longer, and make sure that we have more people doing the jobs that need to be done.

Joining us today is Melissa Jenkins. Melissa is the Health and Wellness Manager for Emergency Medical Care. This is the group that operates ambulances and handles 811 and 911 calls in our province. This is an essential group for us as Nova Scotians. Melissa is really leading the way in new approaches to helping people return to the workplace safely in a timely way after a workplace injury.

Melissa is also a member of the First Responders Mental Health Steering Committee, along with Shelley Rowan, and through that forum works collaboratively with first responders and leaders from police, fire, nursing, corrections, labour and government, to develop tools and resources to help first responders maintain positive mental health throughout their careers.

In this conversation, Shelley and Melissa discuss the elements involved in the return to work process, including risk prevention in emergency medical roles, engaging employees while they are recovering and the importance of an individualized approach to support a successful return to work.

Make sure you follow WorkShift, a podcast from the Workers' Compensation Board that helps to rewrite the narrative on what makes a healthy, safe and successful workplace.