March 2026, Vol. 4 Ed. 2

President’s Message

It certainly feels like spring has arrived early in Vancouver this year.

In nearly 14 years of living here, I don’t remember a winter quite this mild. The longer days and hints of spring are always welcome and feel like a natural moment to look ahead to the energy and renewal that this time of year tends to bring.

Over the past few months, your MSA Executive has continued the work we set in motion at the start of the year—reviewing our strategic priorities and strengthening the ways we support and represent our medical staff community across campus. As I shared earlier this year, we remain focused on ensuring our processes are clear and fair, supporting meaningful member-driven initiatives, and fostering collaboration across the Children’s and Women’s sites.

One of the areas we’re particularly excited to move forward with is the relaunch of our MSA project funding. Applications are now open, with a submission deadline of April 1st. These projects have been a cornerstone of the MSA’s work over the past several years, supporting initiatives that strengthen our professional community and improve the quality of working life for our members.

Looking ahead, we are also planning a Project Celebration Day, tentatively scheduled for September 2026, to showcase and celebrate the many projects completed over the past five years. These initiatives represent an incredible amount of creativity, leadership, and collaboration within our medical staff community, and we’re excited to highlight that work together.

Our next MSA meeting will take place in early April, and we look forward to connecting with many of you there as we continue these conversations and move several initiatives forward.

As always, the strength of this community lies in how we support one another. The Executive remains committed to listening, advocating, and creating opportunities to foster connection across our medical staff.

Thank you for the work you do every day and for the contributions you make to this community.

Warm regards,
Dr. Katey Armstrong
President, MSACW

New Executive Bios

Heba Al-Nashef (She/Her)
Registered Midwife
Assistant Department Head of Midwifery – Providence Health Care, St Paul’s Hospital (SPH) lead
CW Medical informatics lead

We are pleased to welcome Heba Al-Nashef as our new Midwife Member-at-Large on the Executive Board. Heba brings a wealth of experience and a genuine passion for supporting families throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care.

Of Palestinian and Syrian heritage, Heba grew up in Amman, Jordan, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Midwifery in 2008. She then went on to complete her Master’s degree in Midwifery in Nottingham, UK, in 2011. Soon after completing her studies, Heba immigrated to Canada to pursue a model of midwifery grounded in informed choice and evidence-based practices. She began her Canadian career at a birth center in Winnipeg. In 2016, Heba’s love for her family and her desire to be closer to the mountains and the ocean brought her to Vancouver. She has cared for diverse communities, specializing in supporting Arab, Muslim and Refugee families in downtown Vancouver. She later joined the South Community Birth Program, a high-volume practice where she continued serving families for four years. In 2024, she participated in a humanitarian mission to Gaza with a Canadian NGO, providing care to women and their babies in extremely challenging birthing conditions. She is currently locuming for the Huckleberry team at BCWH and Family Practice at SPH. In addition to her clinical work, Heba has taken an important leadership role as Assistant Head of the Department of Midwifery at St. Paul’s Hospital.

Outside of her professional life, Heba enjoys preparing traditional Arab Levant dishes, reading, and spending quality time with her family and her fluffy cat. She also stays active through mixed martial arts training, including Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu!

Tessa Diaczun (She/Her)
BCCH Nurse Practitioner
Clinical Project Lead, Slocan Redevelopment

We are pleased to welcome Tessa Diaczun as our new Nurse Practitioner Member-at-Large on the Executive Board. Tessa brings over two decades of nursing experience, with a strong focus on children with medical complexity and their families through thoughtful clinical planning.

Tessa lives in Vancouver with her husband, nine-year old daughter, and two cats. As a family, they enjoy spending time outdoors, camping, hiking, biking, and swimming in the ocean, as well as visiting the barn where her daughter rides horses!

Tessa has been a nurse for over 20 years, including 16 years as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. Throughout her career, she has focused on caring for children with medical complexity and disabilities. She currently practices part-time at BC Children’s Hospital, with much of her time dedicated to serving as the Clinical Planning Lead for the new BCCH centre for health complexity.

Tessa is excited to bring a nurse practitioner perspective to the MSA Executive and to support the important work already underway!

Call for Engagement Projects

The maximum allotted amount per project will be $10,000, with an option to increase funding based on project progress and committee approval. The scope of work end date is March 31st, 2027. Larger projects that have already begun and will continue past this date can be considered; however, we ask that your application outline only the work and budget that will take place within this timeframe.

Doctors of BC Facility Engagement aims to foster meaningful consultation and collaboration among MSAs and health authorities to achieve these outcomes.

• Improve engagement within and amongst MSAs with opportunities to connect, identify, and set collective priorities, work on projects together, and communicate with each other and the health authority.
• Improve MSA and health authority engagement through increased and effective interactions between MSA leaders, medical staff, and health authority leaders to co-identify shared priorities and collaborate on developing and implementing solutions.
• Enhance the MSA’s collective voice in health system planning and decision-making through greater involvement in health service planning and decision-making.

For more details and to access the project application form, please visit MASES | Apply For A Project.

If you have any questions, please reach out to projects@msacw.ca.

Engagement Project Peer Review Support Session: Sign-Up Now!
Our Projects Review Committee Members would be happy to provide support prior to your application submission in order to ensure your project is aligned with the Doctors of BC Facility Engagement Funding Guidelines. If you are interested in this support, please contact projects@msacw.ca.

Q&A Session – March 11th, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Additionally, we will be hosting a virtual info session on Wednesday, March 11th at 5:00 PM to answer any application related questions. To sign up, please email projects@msacw.ca.

Previously Funded Projects:
To provide a sense of the types of initiatives supported through Facility Engagement funding, below are examples of projects funded in 2024–2025:

• Pediatric Hospital Medicine Models of Care Rejuvenation
• Enhancing Community Care for Children and Youth with Eating Disorders; Development & Implementation of a BC Child and Youth Eating Disorders Complex Care Clinical Pathway and Support Toolkit
• Collective Competence in Cutting Edge Genomics Part 3
• Bronchopulmonary dysplasia outcome estimator use in NICU-stakeholder engagement, on its use at BCWH NICU
• Minimally Invasive Surfactant Therapy (MIST) Implementation in NICUs across British Columbia
• Collaborative care planning for unborn babies
• UBC Department of Pediatrics: Systems Innovation, Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (SIQIPS) Clinical Faculty Promotions Guidelines
• Emerging Leaders
• Update of PedMed website for sustainability and to improve efficiency
• Procedural sedation training course for physicians
• Improving Assessment and Management of Adolescent Endometriosis and Chronic Pelvic Pain in British Columbia
• Establishing a Peer Coaching Program for Well-Being and Resiliency in Female Physicians
• BCCH Quality Improvement Review Committee
• Updating the Fetal Cardiology Service at C&W
• Validating gaps and optimizing the transition from the neonatal intensive care unit to assisted home feeding at British Columbia Children’s and Women’s Hospital

For more projects funded in previous years, please visit: https://msacw.ca/mases-projects/previously-funded-projects/.

Deadline for Current Projects:
Spending Reminder – Please Submit Your Claims

As we approach the end of the fiscal year, we would like to remind project leads that all claims for projects that are part of this fiscal year (ending March 31, 2026) must be submitted through the FEMS platform by March 13th, 2026. This will help ensure that your project related expenses are processed before the fiscal year ends.

Important Reminder: To stay in compliance with the Doctors of BC funding guidelines, it’s essential that all claims are submitted within 90 days of the activity taking place.

If you need assistance with the claims process or have any questions about your project, please reach out to projects@msacw.ca.

Frontline Faculty Focus

Welcome to “Frontline Faculty Focus”, where we profile members of the MSA. If you’d like to get your mug into the newsletter, please send us an email at engagement@msacw.ca.

Amy Fotheringham

Cardiac Surgery Nurse Practitioner
Critical Care
Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, BC Children’s Hospital

How long have you been at C&W?
I’ve just completed my first year!

Tell us about a satisfying moment at work you’ve had recently.
I pride myself on going the extra mile for patients and their families. We have recently had multiple teenagers or family members with anxiety who have since said they really appreciate the effort I put into supporting, reassuring and listening to them.

What’s a work frustration you wish you could solve with a snap of a finger?
I would love to be able to speak multiple languages to not have to use the interpreter on wheels.

What’s a secret skill you have that most people don’t know?
I used to be a musical theatre performer! I love to sing and miss doing performances.

Any hobbies you’d care to share?
I love to read – I read almost every day. I also like to hike and ski (although I am not very good at it) and spend time with my family.

Favourite trip in the past couple of years? I went to Spain with my family before relocating to Canada. It was a wonderfully relaxing holiday before the craziness of moving continents!

Be a Guest Speaker at our MSACW Engagement Lunches
– Interest Form

MSA Lounge Updates

Access the Current MSACW Lounge Pin

No badge? No Problem! You can still access the lounge using the keypad on the door handle. The PIN has been updated and will continue to change periodically as needed to keep access limited to paying members. Announcements regarding PIN changes will be shared via email.

To access the current PIN, simply navigate to our website and go to the Lounge Access section under the For Members tab. You will then need to log in using your Membee account credentials to view the PIN. Please keep this PIN confidential–this is for member access only. Please note: The PIN was changed on March 2nd, 2026.

Print, Scan, Done! – MSA Lounge Printer Upgrade

Working in the MSA lounge just got a lot easier! Our printer has been upgraded! Members can now print in colour or black-and-white and scan documents quickly and conveniently in the lounge. This upgrade is part of our ongoing effort to make the lounge a more productive, functional, and accessible workspace.

Printer paper is kept next to the printer and under the desk. Please note that you will need to log in to the lounge workstation using your C&W credentials to access printing and scanning features. Paper is restocked monthly based on usage and need; however, if it runs out or you encounter any issues, please reach out to engagement@msacw.ca.

Catch Up Anytime – MSACW Meeting Minutes are Just a Click Away

MSA Membership Means Paying Your Dues

Dues for 2026 are now due!

Doctors of BC Regional Collaboration Across PHSA Programs

We are pleased to share the following message on behalf of our Engagement Partner Lead for PHSA Regional Engagement. Please view details, survey access, and the submission deadline below.

Facility Engagement (FE) Specialist Services Committee –
Evaluation Survey

We are pleased to share the following message on behalf of the Facilities Engagement (FE) Specialist Services Committee. Please view details, survey access, and the submission deadline below.

Are you a medical staff member or a health authority partner? Tell us about your Facility Engagement experience by March 18th!

Your feedback will help your MSA/Physician Society to:

• Understand current medical staff engagement experiences with the MSA/Physician Society
• Identify engagement strengths and challenges between medical staff and health authority
• Learn about the impact of the Facility Engagement Initiative at your facility

Feedback from non-participants in the work of the MSA/Physician Society or the Facility Engagement Initiative are also welcomed to help understand improvement opportunities.

Aggregated results by health authority will be shared, along with site-level results (depending on response rates), and will be interpreted alongside other data sources to:

• support ongoing learning and improvement opportunities for the Facility Engagement Initiative; and,
• communicate the impacts of the Facility Engagement Initiative to partners at your facility, health authority, and provincial level. 

More information on the FE Evaluation is available here, and survey FAQs are available here.

For questions, please contact engagement@doctorsofbc.ca.

The MSACW Monitor is published six times a year by the MSACW Executive. Please direct all feedback, questions, and contributions to engagement@msacw.ca. Illustrations designed by vectorjuice / Freepik.