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Categories: A New Approach, Building Skills, My Experience, Working Together for Better Health Care
PVN patient partner Terry Wilde is a busy man. He came to PVN four years ago after experiencing and witnessing a lot of gaps in care and health care harm for his wife. He looked for a way to turn his grief into action.
“I was going to fight but that was not going to heal me. By joining in health care improvement, I have made a greater impact in improving care,” said Terry.
In four years, Terry has over 30 engagement opportunities under his belt. He believes that organization is a critical part of his success.
“Getting involved in more and more opportunities is part of my healing process.” He added, “They kept asking me about my experience, so I created this tracking document to see what I had done.”
Health Quality BC has adapted Terry’s tool for use by PVN patient partners, in both an Excel and PDF format. It’s a great way to keep track of your current and future involvement.
“I find the tracking tool useful, and I can look back on all the work – I see it as an achievement,” Terry said, adding, “I can also add notes like whether the health care team has closed the loop, which is important to me.”
Patient partners can use this tracking form and adapt it to fit their experience. You can add fields, change titles, and keep notes of when you have RSVP’d for an opportunity. It can also be a good way to keep track of health care partners’ commitment to closing the loop on opportunities.
Terry shared some of the lessons learned during his time as a patient partner.
- Use your experience and be authentic.
- If you have the opportunity and desire, take as much training as you can.
- Take what you can from PVN, training, and mentoring, to support the work you want to do.
Terry added, “Four years ago, I spoke at my local hospital about the harm with my late wife’s care and now, I recently worked with the WHO (World Health Organization) on planning for World Patient Safety Day, which is a big thing for me.”
He added, “The training and mentorship I received through PVN is a wonderful resource to help me with this work.”
Thank you, Terry, for this tracking form. Your contributions to improving health care in BC are much appreciated!
