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Member, BC Emergency Health Services Patient Experience Group

Posted • Last updated

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Commitment: Long-term

Open to Provincial Region

Last updated

Volunteer Opportunity
BC Emergency Health Services is making significant changes to improve the clinical care provided by paramedics in BC. If you are interested in ensuring these changes reflect what matters to patients and families accessing the ambulance service across the province this could be the opportunity for you!

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Lead Organization/Department
BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS)

Aim
As a healthcare organization, BCEHS is constantly updating its approach to caring for patients contacting them through 911 and wants to make sure its approach aligns with what matters to patients in BC.

As a member of the Patient Experience Group, you will support BCEHS in improving the overall delivery of emergency and non-emergency out-of-hospital care for patients suffering medical emergencies or urgent but non-emergency medical conditions. As patient partners your firsthand knowledge, insight and experience will support us to develop programs and policy which meets the needs of patients contacting 911.

Level of Engagement
This opportunity is at the level of involve on the spectrum of engagement. 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
Open to patient partners across the province who:
• Are 18 years of age or older
• Have access to a computer and WIFI and are comfortable participating in online meetings
• Are comfortable sharing experiences in a group environment
• Some experience with contacting 911 or paramedic services either directly or for someone else is preferred, but not essential

As connection and relationship building is important to BCEHS we would like to meet with short listed patient partners as part of our selection process.

If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and Patient Partner Commitments, 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

Logistics
• Number of vacancies: 8-10
• Date and Time: Monthly meetings starting April 2022, exact date and time to be determined based on patient partner availability (the meetings will be 1 hour in duration). Occasional pre-reading of materials will also be required.
• Location: Virtual meetings through MS Teams
• Commitment: 12 months, with the possibility of an extension

Reimbursement
No out of pocket expenses are anticipated for this engagement opportunity. However, 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.

Recognition for time will be provided according to the health care partners’ organizational policies.

Background
BCEHS is responsible for the delivery of out-of-hospital medical care in BC, providing the services of paramedics through the ambulance service. In response to changing demands on ambulance services, BCEHS has had to re-evaluate the historical approach to paramedic care across the province. This has included new clinical guidelines for paramedics and care pathways for specific patient populations.

BCEHS is aware that sharing experiences related to calling an ambulance can be challenging and triggering. Please know that if at any time you are feeling uncomfortable you can take a break or leave the meetings. BCEHS will also make sure that every meeting will be attended by a staff member with training in mental health first aid who can offer additional supports.

For further information on BCEHS PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Cassy Mitchell
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Provincial
250.279.o717
cmitchell@bcpsqc.ca

From Our Community

Laura Parmar

Physician Quality Improvement Coach — Northern Health

Laura Palmer

It has been so rewarding to go from an idea to working with such a great group of dedicated people from so many different organizations towards a very fun and rewarding project. Several extremely engaged PVN members expressed interest in being part of piloting a patient virtual care peer support system. I am confident that this is the beginning of many more exciting collaborations!