Skip to main content

Because your voice matters.

Co-facilitator; Patient Perspectives and Role Clarity Inter-professional Workshop for BC Institute of Technology (BCIT) Health Science Students

Posted

Closed

Commitment: Short-term

Connection methods: Virtual, In-person

Open to Fraser Valley & Lower Mainland, – must be able to attend Burnaby Campus for an in-person event Provincial – for virtual participation

Posted

Volunteer Opportunity
The BCIT School of Health Sciences supports the goal of good health and well-being for all persons. Help our future health science students better understand the patient’s perspective and the impact of health care providers actions on patients participation in their own care.  Share your personal story and volunteer to help co-facilitate a 2-hour workshop with health science educators from a spectrum of professions. Let’s make a difference now and into the future to provide better and safer care!

RSVP Now

Lead Organization/Department
BCIT School of Health Sciences Inter-professional Education

Aim
The role of the patient partner is to engage with groups of students from different health professions over a 2 hour workshop (class size 24-80).  Patient partners will share their, or a family member’s, perspectives on the effective strategies health care professionals used that increased their own participation in their care and then will provide feedback to students as they work through 3 specific case studies during the workshop.

By participating in this workshop, you are providing newly enrolled health science students with an opportunity to develop their communication skills with patients and identify strategies that support patients and their families – enforcing the perspective that patients are integral partners in the provision of care throughout their journey.

Level of Engagement:
This opportunity is at the level of consult on the spectrum of engagement. The promise to you is that the health care partner will listen to and acknowledge your ideas and concerns, and provide feedback on how your input affected the decision.

Eligibility
Open to patient partners who:
• Have previous/current health care experience as a patient, family member or caregiver
• Are adults (35 years old or older) with a chronic health condition (for example diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, etc.)
• Are willing & comfortable to share their health experiences
• Are from the Lower Mainland and have access to transportation to get to the in-person workshops or are comfortable using Zoom for virtual participation

If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation Patient Partner Commitments form, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact Cassy Mitchell.

Please see our BCIT website with the most up to date Covid 19 protocols

Logistics
• Number of vacancies: 10 (1-2 patient partners per workshop)
• Date and Time: Workshops are scheduled the week of September 26 – 28th
– Sept 26th 08:30-10:30 (in person)
– Sept 26th 15:30- 17:30 (virtually – Zoom)
– Sept 27th 09:30 – 11:30 (in person)
– Sept 28th 08:30-10:30 (in person)
– Sept 28th 14:30-16:30 (in person)
• Location: In person, at the Burnaby Campus or remote participation via Zoom
• Commitment: One time
• Orientation Meeting:
– BCIT Coordinator will reach out to the patient partners Friday Sept 16th in order to set up an information session (Zoom 1 hour) for either Monday Sept 19th or Tuesday Sept 20th (depending on availability) to go over the workshop to review:

      • Outcomes of the workshop
      • The patient partner role
      • Review of questions we will be asking the students and then time for patient perspective

Reimbursement
Reimbursements will be provided according to BCIT’s organizational policies. If you meet the eligibility criteria, but have concerns about your ability to participate, please contact Cassy Mitchell cmitchell@bcpsqc.ca to see if support options are available. We are always seeking to better understand and reduce barriers to participation.

Background
At BCIT, most health science students (nursing, medical laboratory, nuclear medicine, sonography, medical radiography, prosthetics, orthotics and many other programs) start their first term in the classroom and labs and do not have hospital experiences until later in their programs. These first term students are not in clinical practice for their first semester of the program which means they do not engage with patients in-person.  We believe that interacting with patient partners through PVN will provide these students with an opportunity to practice their communication skills, such as learning how to introduce themselves, and describing their role effectively to patients and their family members.

Additionally, students will be able to develop an understanding of the patient’s health care perspective and the impact a health care worker’s actions have on the patients’ and families’ health care journey.  Through this important workshop, students from all health professions should be able to identify strategies that support participation of patients and families as integral partners in the provision of care.

BCIT health science students and instructors will be involved in this initiative and confidentiality will be maintained. The BCIT School of Health does not see any risks with this request as the students will engage in a workshop focused on the patient partner’s health care journey. However, should a concern be raised by the patient partner, the BCIT health science student will loop in the instructor for guidance. The students  are in their first semester of their health programs so if any health concerns are raised by the patient partner, the students will seek out their instructor for guidance. The knowledge level is limited for these first semester students, so they will not be providing any instructions to the patient partner. This patient partner’s facilitation during this workshop is a learning exercise for students in the area of developing communication skills.

None of these sessions will be recorded and information will not be shared with any other peers/colleagues. Information may be shared with the instructor however for learning purposes only.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Cassy Mitchell Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement 250.279.0717 cmitchell@bcpsqc.ca

From Our Community

Agnes Black

Director, Health Services & Clinical Research and Knowledge Translation – Providence Health Care

Agnes Black

It’s really hard to make changes in health care. When a PVN patient partner says, ‘This is important to us’ it keeps us grounded on why a change is needed and keeps us motivated to keep going on projects.