BCIT Nursing Student Workshop: Indigenous Patient Partner Lived Journey Seminar

We are pleased to invite expressions of interest for participation in an upcoming Patient Partner workshop for Nursing students at the end of their 1st year of a 3-year program.

This 90-minute interactive session will give students the invaluable opportunity to learn directly from individuals who have first-hand experience navigating the health care system in BC as an Indigenous person.

The Patient Partner Lived Journey Seminar aims to bridge the gap between theoretical training and the lived experience of people receiving care.

Two Indigenous Patient Partners, each of whom has accessed health care services in BC, will share their unique perspectives on navigating the health care system.

Their stories will cover experiences and important context both before and after engaging with the BC health care system, highlighting one or two experiences and ongoing impacts associated with the care received.

Learning Outcomes for Students
• Understand what it can be like to access health care as an Indigenous person in the BC health care system, including experiences that made you feel welcomed, respected, heard or safe.
• Learn about the experiences and circumstances that can shape health and access to care, from the perspective of someone who has lived them.
• Hear/Learn about what helped or made it harder to receive care, including experiences that affected your comfort, trust, communication, healing or recovery.
• Explore what cultural safety can look and feel like in nursing care, including examples of when it was present and when it was missing.
• Reflect on how to build respectful, trusting relationships with Indigenous patients, families and communities.

Workshop Format
Duration: 90 -120 minutes (2 hours for workshop + 60 min prep meeting a week prior to the workshop)
In-person

Participants: Patient Partners & Nursing students

Structure
In person on Burnaby campus. Patient Partners will each share their experiences, followed by an interactive Q&A and group discussion.

Patient Narrative — 35 minutes
Your lived experience is the foundation of this learning experience. You are invited to share, question, challenge and offer perspectives, while maintaining whatever boundaries you need around your own story and experiences. The goal is not to represent every Indigenous experience, but to help health care students recognize the importance of listening to persons receiving care, reflecting on their own assumptions, and considering how nursing practice can contribute to culturally safer care.
There is no expectation to share anything you are not comfortable sharing. Your story belongs to you and you may choose what aspects of your experience you wish to bring forward.

Selection Process: Expressions of Interest will be reviewed collaboratively by a team (including an instructor and BCIT Patient Partner Lead). The team will meet with applicants in order to match Patient Partners to ensure a range of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds, recognizing the importance of diverse voices and lived experience in health professions education.

Selected Patient Partners will be invited to meet with a team before the workshop. This meeting will provide an opportunity to learn more about the workshop, discuss expectations, ask questions and explore how the Patient Partner’s perspectives, lived experiences, and ways of knowing might contribute to the learning experience.

Renumeration
Patient Partners will receive an honorarium in recognition of their time and contributions aligned with our organization’s Patient Partner engagement guidelines.

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Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of Inform on the IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation.

Eligibility

• Willing & comfortable to share health care experiences in a group setting
• Comfort with public speaking
• Indigenous Patient Partners who have accessed health care in BC.Must be able to attend in-person at BCIT Burnaby Campus

Patient Partners ARE required to be PVN members to participate in this engagement opportunity.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Leanna Wong Program Assistant, SOHS IPE | BCIT (604) 431-4925 leanna_wong@bcit.ca

Interested?

Apply by October 15, 2026.

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