Integrated Primary Care Continuing Professional Development Advisory Group

The BC health sector is moving forward with primary health care reform! UBC Health needs your help as it works to understand the skills and training each profession needs in order to provide person-centred primary care.

Open to: Patient partners across the province

Lead Organization or Department

UBC Health

Aim

The Integrated Primary Care Continuing Professional Development Advisory Group will be responsible for establishing a process to assess current needs around continuing professional development (CPD) that supports emerging models of integrated primary care. The Advisory Group will inform the development of a comprehensive engagement and needs assessment strategy across the province to identify current initiatives and activities. Patient partners represent key stakeholders that will help identify what practitioners need to know to provide effective team-based primary care.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of involve on the spectrum of engagement (www.iap2.org). The promise to you is that the health care partner will involve patients in planning and design phases to ensure ideas or concerns are considered and reflected in alternatives and recommendations.

Eligibility

• Familiarity with primary care and team-based models of delivery
• Comfort working with educational initiatives
• Experience working on an advisory group would be an asset
• Patients should have previously attended a PVN orientation session and signed the Volunteer Agreement. If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and volunteer agreement, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact Karen Estrin directly.

Logistics

• Vacancies: 2
• Starting September 2017 the advisory group will meet monthly for two-hour meetings. Meetings will be scheduled during regular business hours.
• Local members will be able to attend in person at UBC or via teleconference
• Participation will be for over a year

Reimbursement

Preapproved expenses related to local travel (i.e. transit, parking up to $18/day) to attend in-person meetings will be reimbursed by the health care partner. No anticipated expenses for patient partners outside of the Lower Mainland who participate by teleconference or online.

Background

What is primary care? Primary care is typically the first and main point of contact a patient has within the health care system. This usually includes care from a family doctor or nurse practitioner, who also co-ordinates any other specialized care that the patient may need. What is the new model of primary and community care all about? Teams and networks of primary care providers are at the centre of the new model for primary and community care services being established around the province. This includes family doctors, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare providers in the community such as pharmacists, occupational therapists and social workers, resulting in more comprehensive, integrated care for patients. These teams have strong connections to services provided by health authorities, which include redesigned and new specialized community care services for vulnerable patients including the frail elderly, those with complex health needs, and those dealing with mental illness or substance-use issues. What is the benefit of this new model to patients and families? Through this new integrated approach to primary care, patients receive more coordinated care and are supported to proactively maintain their health and quality of life. This can help patients retain their independence longer, improve their quality of life, help them avoid admissions to hospital and avoid premature entry into residential care. Integrated Primary Care Continuing Professional Development Advisory Group Recognizing the importance of continuing professional development (CPD) in supporting new models of care such as Patient Medical Homes and Primary Care Networks, initiatives often include an educational component to support the development of teams. Currently, we do not have a comprehensive provincial picture of the types of initiatives that are being established nor the CPD methods that are being used to support them. This lack of information prevents the sharing of good practices and can lead to duplication of efforts. The work of the advisory group will be to accomplish the following in relation to team-based primary care:

1. Inform the development of a comprehensive needs assessment and engagement strategy.
2. Identify organizations and key players currently involved in or working towards integrated care initiatives.
3. Engage key stakeholders in the process including all health care professions that are essential to the models of care.
4. Facilitate an understanding of current initiatives across BC and the supporting CPD programs for team-based care.
5. Contribute to the sharing of content and delivery methods used in CPD programs that support integrated primary care models.
6. Identify and analyze gaps and needs in relation to CPD to ascertain opportunities.
7. Foster collaborative ownership of recommendations put forward to the Ministry of Health.

Terms of reference for this Advisory Group are available by request.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Karen Estrin
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Lower Mainland & Sunshine Coast
604.668.8245
kestrin@bcpsqc.ca