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Meet Our New Oversight & Advisory Committee Patient Partner Representatives!

Posted • Last updated

Categories: My Experience, News & Events

We’re excited to announce that the new patient partner representatives have been selected! See who they are and how they were selected:

After announcing the opportunity for new patient partner representatives to join our Oversight & Advisory Committee, we were happy to see PVN members from all across the province express their interest in participating! We received a total of 25 RSVPs, and it was great to read everyone’s ideas for improving our Network, and patient- and family-centred care in BC as a whole.

The selection process

New members of the Oversight & Advisory Committee are chosen by a selection panel consisting of two members of our Patient & Public Engagement team and two PVN members. This time, the PVN members on the selection panel were Kay Johnson and Rosemarie Hoefsloot.

The candidates were shortlisted based on their responses to the RSVP form. After that, each shortlisted candidate had a 15-minute interview with the selection panel members, using a standard set of questions. The final selection was then based on the candidates’ interview answers, their responses on the RSVP form, and diversity considerations such as geography, experience and age.

It’s inspiring to see the passion from PVN members about improving our health care system and their commitment to building the Network. All it takes is one 15-minute interview to be completely reinvigorated. We’re excited to introduce that energy to the Committee this year as we work on our key priorities from the new PVN Strategic Plan.
Ben Ridout, Director, Patient & Public Engagement

Meet the new Oversight & Advisory Committee patient partner representatives

While we were initially looking for six new patient partner representatives, two current committee members stepped away due to personal reasons, so we ended up with eight open spots. We ended up recruiting five new patient partner representatives, along with three members from last year – Kimberly Strain, Jim Cawsey and Alyson Hagan-Johnson – who applied to renew their membership for two more years.

See who the new patient partner representatives are and learn about their hopes for PVN:

Pamela Jessen

Advisory Committee MemberPamela lives in Langford and has been a PVN member for almost four years. She decided to join the committee because it seemed like a great opportunity to work on her passion for change in the BC health care system.

Her hopes for the next few years are that PVN can achieve the goals set out in our Strategic Plan, especially in sharing who we are and what we do, and bringing the concept of patient-centred care to the forefront of everything we do.

“My personal desire is to make PVN a household name: to make sure that everyone in BC knows about us and our work, so they can join and have their voices heard as well.”

Lin Chen

Lin lives in Burnaby and has been a PVN member for one year. Her decision to join the committee was motivated by her interest in actively contributing to patient and public engagement.

“My hope for PVN in the coming years is that patients and patient partners will have more opportunities to make their voices heard by health care professionals/systems.”

Sherri Mytopher

Sherri Mytopher.PVN Patient Partner.New Member Oversight & Advisory Committee MemberSherri lives in Fort St. John and joined PVN in January 2017. The importance of having patient representation in rural, northern communities to help identify barriers in the health care system is what made her decide to join the committee.

“I feel collaboration between patients and health care partners and organizations is important moving forward. With partnerships like the Oversight & Advisory Committee and other projects within PVN, this collaboration will become more recognized and play an imperative role in strategies and research in the health care system.”

Cassy Mitchell

Cassy Mitchell.PVN Patient Partner.New Member Oversight & Advisory CommitteeCassy lives in Kitimat and became a PVN member in July 2017. She joined the Committee for the opportunity to improve quality of care for patients accessing health care services.

“I hope to work on sustaining health care improvements and to increase patients’ engagement in the Network.”

Kyle Warkentin

Kyle Warkentin.PVN Patient Partner.New member Oversight and Advisory CommitteeKyle lives in Abbotsford and has been a patient partner for four years. He decided to join the committee after having seen the results of PVN’s work for the community.

“I have seen projects to completion and witnessed health care change, and I’ve seen the incorporation of the public becoming an integral part of health care policy and design. This committee will offer me even more opportunities to share my passion,” he said.

“I hope youth involvement in PVN will increase, because soon youth will be the ones in care.”

Follow the committee’s work

We regularly post updates about the Oversight & Advisory Committee’s meetings on our website and in our Patient Voice Mail newsletter. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to let us know by messaging us on social media (Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn), sending us an email at pvn@bcpsqc.ca or calling us at 604.668.8240.

From Our Community

Karla Warkotsch

Patient Experience Consultant – Interior Health

Karla Warkotsch

The question I like to ask health care employees is ‘Who is this for?’ and ‘Do we have the right people at the table?’ As a health care employee, I see how easy it is to fall into doing for, rather than doing with patients. The voices of the patient, family and caregiver are essential to ensure the patient is central to the direction and focus of the work being done.