PVN Patient Partner Chad Dickie was recently sponsored by PVN to attend a great learning opportunity: a workshop on Design Thinking facilitated by the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council. Chad has been a volunteer since 2017 and has been a part of several committees and Boards, and involved with multiple patient engagement opportunities. He […]
PVN patient partners have the chance to attend many of the workshops offered by the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council, which cover topics such as applying design principles to health care challenges and using data to drive improvement projects. We recently sponsored two patient partners to attend these workshops and, in the first of […]
In October, the government of BC announced funding for a new urgent primary care facility to open in Langford on Vancouver Island. We caught up with Layton Engwer and Chad Dickie, two PVN patient partners who were involved in the consultation and implementation of the new centre. They told us about what it was like […]
As part of our monthly blog feature on all the regions of BC (so far, we’ve done posts on a successful PVN project at Fraser Health and takeaways from the IAP2 conference in Victoria), we are focusing on Northern BC this month! We’ve asked Cherie, a PVN Patient Partner, to tell us about her experience […]
The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) recently held their North American conference in Victoria and PVN sponsored three patient partners to attend this great learning opportunity. If you’re unfamiliar with IAP2, this is the organization that created the public engagement spectrum tool that PVN uses for our engagement opportunities. The conference welcomed nearly 400 […]
As you may have heard, we are looking for four patient partner and two health care partner representatives to fill vacancies on PVN’s Oversight and Advisory Committee. This is a unique opportunity to learn about the inner workings of the Network. Share your voice at the table with other patient and health care partners as […]
Around the world, August 31 is recognized as Overdose Awareness Day. This year, Fort St. John is taking this event one step further: two local groups, the Fort St. John Community Action Team and Healthy Fort St. John, have joined forces to organize a week of activities to help raise awareness around substance use. There is […]
As you have may have read about on our Engagement Opportunities page (or heard about on the radio!), there are vacancies on five of Island Health’s Quality Councils. These groups meet regularly to approve new standards of care, review patient experiences, identify improvements, and celebrate successes across the Vancouver Island region. The patient partner perspective […]
Patient Partner Charles Lee and Engagement Leader Jami Brown recently attended the 2018 Networks Leadership Symposium in Vancouver, BC. This year, the symposium was themed “Networks as Balancing Acts: Managing Inherent Tensions?”. The purpose of this event was to encourage participants to explore a range of network tensions and the challenges involved in trying to […]
PVN Patient Partner Delia Cooper won the Leadership in Advancing the Patient Voice Award in the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council’s 2017 Quality Awards. Delia was recognized for her dedicated volunteerism supporting those with arthritis and other chronic conditions. Quality Award winners each receive a $2,500 sponsorship to support ongoing development and disseminate learning […]
In this blog post, patient partner Edwina Nearhood, a “What Matters to You?” Ambassador, discusses why the initiative resonates with her personally, how she got involved last year, and how she plans to keep the momentum going in 2018!
Our second guest blog post for National Volunteer Week is from patient partner Chad Dickie. In this piece, Chad discusses the importance of using your voice to make a difference and explains how patient perspectives can contribute to positive changes in the health care system.
Katherine Willett was many things: a change maker, a beloved community member, and an outspoken advocate for family caregivers and seniors. The Patient Voices Network would like to take this time to acknowledge all the lives Katherine touched and the many changes she fought for as a volunteer in our health care system.
It’s National Volunteer Week, and we’re putting the spotlight on some of our incredible patient partners! In this blog piece, patient partner Jean Shepherd discusses how she got involved with PVN and what motivates her to keep using her voice.
It’s National Volunteer Week from April 15 – 21, and we’d like to take this time to recognize all of you who volunteer in our health care system! We’ve accomplished so much this year, but we couldn’t have done it without the hard work of our patient partners. Thank you for all that you do […]
Quality Forum 2018 has come and gone – and it certainly made an impact! In this post, patient partner Donald Grant shares his thoughts and takeaways from two jam-packed days of networking, information sharing and learning opportunities.
Visiting a hospital can be a frightening, emotional experience, especially if you’re a child. In this poem, patient partner David Baxter reflects on his work in the Psychiatric Emergency After Hours Service, and how he was able to connect with a young patient to provide comfort in a time of need.
Pamela Jessen was one of our patient partners selected to join the judging panel in charge of deciding the winners and runners-up for the 2018 Quality Awards. She shared her experience in this post:
We’re excited to announce that the new patient partner representatives have been selected! See who they are and how they were selected:
Our patient partner Linda Perkins, from Surrey, has been fighting blindness for the last 20 years. In this post, she tells us her story and the meaningful difference a true health care partner has made in her health and her life:
No one can say that our patient partner Bob Strain doesn’t put his heart into spreading the importance of patients expressing what matters to them and taking the lead in their health care. This year, Bob is so dedicated to promoting the message far and wide in preparation for “What Matters to You?” Day tomorrow […]
In early 2016, Okanagan College contacted us in search of an experienced caregiver who would like to speak to a health promotion and gerontology class. The idea was to discuss family members who care for older adults needing assistance, and to identify health promotion strategies and community support for family caregivers.
Oshi Mathur was one of the 20 PVN Patient Partners to attend Quality Forum 2017, which took place March 1-3 in Vancouver. In this post he describes his experience at the Forum and his main takeaways from participating:
Quality Forum 2017 is taking place on March 1-3 in Vancouver, and we’re excited with the fact that there will be many PVN Patient Partners participating! It will be a great learning and networking opportunity, and we’re looking forward to connecting with everyone at the event. We were curious about what those 20 patients are […]
After facing challenges with her health since a young age, Leya Stringer decided to become a PVN Patient Partner in 2013 to share her experience and help improve the health care system. Four years and 30 engagement opportunities later, she wrote this blog post to tell us what it was like to start participating and […]
A few weeks ago, our patient partner Edwina Nearhood wrote a guest post about what she was looking forward to learning at the National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care. Edwina was very excited about attending the conference and, in this follow-up post, she tells us what the experience was like:
Since joining PVN in early summer 2016, Edwina Nearhood has participated in many engagement opportunities. In this guest blog post, she tells us why she’s looking forward to attending the National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care: “I was put in contact with PVN after I had a less then desirable experience over several […]
Created by the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council in 2009, the Quality Awards celebrate individuals, teams and facilities that significantly improved the quality of care in BC. This year, four individuals and four projects were recognized for their exceptional contributions to all areas of care in the province, from preventing illness and injury to […]
We’re ready to begin telling the stories of our patient and health care partners! Our first ‘Meet our Volunteers’ blog post introduces you to Fran Banks, a PVN Volunteer from White Rock.
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