NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Sahtu Settlement Area, Dehcho Region, South Slave Region

Tags: HEARTcare, compassion fatigue, burnout

Objective(s): To inform future work involving the piloting of HEARTcare, an evidence-based framework, with a group of educational workers who have been recruited in partnership with the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5804. The Northwest Territories Teachers' Association (NWTTA) is set to join in the final year of the SSHRC study (Febuary 2024-July 2025). A survey will be sent to the membership of the NWTTA to explore the scope and experiences of compassion fatigue and burnout in NWT educational workers. The results from this survey will inform future work involving the piloting of HEARTcare, an evidence-based framework, with a group of educational workers who have been recruited in partnership with the NWTTA. HEARTcare involves investigating and using the supports and resources available through schools, system, individual, and professional interventions. In the overall collective case study design of this research project, the NWTTA will be involved with Objective #4: Refine the HEARTcare planning tools and resources and introduce the second iteration to a pilot group of teachers recruited from the membership of the NWTTA. In Year Three (February 2024-July 2025), the modified iteration will be tested with a group of educational workers (micro and meso) from the Northwest Territories. The NWTTA has reported very high rates of teacher turnover and is eager to reverse this trend. Data Collection via online survey. Quantitative data from the ProQOL V5 and burnout inventory will be collected at the beginning (February 2024) and end (July 2025) with three participant groups (60 participants) from the membership of the NWTTA (teachers, EAs, support workers). Qualitative data will be collected through 10-15 in-person interviews in July 2025 to explore the impact of HEARTcare planning on the participants’ workplace well-being. Anonymized documents (HEARTcare planning workbook and/or templates) will be collected as for analysis by the research team. Partner Involvement: The NWTTA will assist with recruiting participants for the modified iteration of this project, and will be involved with knowledge mobilization. The ATA and ASEBP will provide advice for participant recruitment and knowledge-sharing. The WSE research team will lead data collection and provide data analysis. The intent is to communicate primarily with the NWTTA leadership who will decide how to best recruit and communicate with their membership. Should a local district or school site be interested in following up with piloting the HEARTcare materials, the research team will work directly with them to best decide the path for collaboration. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: February 12 - June 30, 2025