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Commitment: Long-term
Connection methods: Virtual, In-person
Open to Provincial Region
Last updated
Volunteer Opportunity
We are seeking a patient partner for the GPAC’s Tobacco and Nicotine Working Group. If you would like to give input on recommendations for a Tobacco and Nicotine Guideline, have experience participating in working groups and have lived experience with tobacco and/or nicotine use, this opportunity could be for you!
Lead Organization/Department
Ministry of Health, Primary Care Division, Guidelines and Protocols Advisory Committee
Aim
Goal of this initiative:
Clinical practice guidelines represent the best medical guidance for clinical decision-making and encourage the provision of medically necessary services that have proven benefits to patients in specific situations. We base practice recommendations on critical appraisal of evidence, focusing on improved outcomes and recommendations, and when certain services should/should not be offered.
Purpose of engaging patient partners:
To improve patient health outcomes and experiences with the primary health care system by incorporating patient’s lived experience. Guideline recommendations should include individualized care plans that are responsive to patient preferences. Patient partners will participate in all tobacco and nicotine working group activities.
Patient partner responsibilities include:
• Ensures the guideline is based on medical evidence and is free of any conflict of interest.
• Ensures the guideline maintains Guidelines and Protocols Advisory Committee (GPAC) requirements/template (e.g., easy-to-read, usable to practitioners, clear, practical advice, under 10 pages).
• Critically reviews all materials (e.g., articles, drafts of the guideline) distributed before the meeting (usually sent out one week before the meeting).
• Reviews all drafts of the guideline and provides feedback as required at the next meeting or via email in a timely manner.
• Available for meetings (estimated 4 meetings). This includes being prepared to book future meetings and alerting the research officer to availability.
• Willing to ask chair or project lead for guidance during the process.
Level of Engagement
This opportunity is at the level of consult on the spectrum of engagement (www.iap2.org). 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
Required:
• Open to people who have tobacco and/or nicotine use lived experience (ideally within the last 5 to 10 years)
• Previous working group or decision-making experience
Preferred:
• Confident providing constructive feedback with health care professionals
• Experience with multiple health care settings and a strong understanding of the health care system in BC (able to identify gaps and opportunities and familiarity with medical terminology)
• Communicates effectively and demonstrates ability to work in partnership with others
• The posting encourages diverse representation from across the province including people from different ethnic, economic, and social backgrounds
Please note:
• The placement process for this opportunity will include an informal interview
If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and signed 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: 2
• Date and Time: November 24, 2022 (1:00pm-4:00pm), two additional 2023 meeting dates TBD
• Location: Meetings are held in a hybrid fashion, with some meetings being virtual (Zoom) and others in person out of Vancouver (with a virtual option).
• Commitment: Approximately 20- 30 hours between November 2022 and Winter 2023
• Patient partners will be sent a meeting package 1 week prior to the working group meeting and will be expected to review this in advance so they can contribute during the meeting
Reimbursement
GPAC will cover all out-of-pocket expenses for patient partners to attend in-person (if required) including ground travel, meals, parking, and accommodation if necessary. However, If the patient partner is outside of the Lower Mainland or Vancouver Island regions, virtual participation is likely.
Recognition for time will also be provided according to GPAC’s reimbursement 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
BCGuidelines.ca are clinical practice guidelines and protocols developed and published by the Guidelines and Protocols Advisory Committee (GPAC) – a collaboration between the Doctors of BC and the Ministry of Health. Membership of this specific working group includes general practitioners and primary care experts from across the province
Clinical practice guidelines represent the best medical guidance for clinical decision-making and encourage the provision of medically necessary services that have proven benefits to patients in specific situations. We base practice recommendations on critical appraisal of evidence, focusing on improved outcomes and recommendations, and when certain services should/should not be offered.
GPAC’s Mandate:
The Guidelines and Protocols Advisory Committee’s (GPAC) mandate is to support both the effective utilization of medical services and high quality, appropriate patient care. This is achieved through the development, publication and promotion of clinical practice guidelines and protocols. GPAC’s clinical practice guidelines are evidence-based recommendations for common medical situations with a particular focus on circumstances in British Columbia (BC). These “Made in BC” clinical practice guidelines are published in a user -friendly format under our brand name BC Guidelines on our website at www.BCGuidelines.ca.
GPAC’s guiding principles are:
• to encourage appropriate responses to common medical situations;
• to recommend actions that are sufficient and efficient, neither excessive nor deficient; and,
• to permit exceptions when justified by clinical circumstances.
Please refer to the GPAC Handbook – How our “Made in BC” Clinical Practice Guidelines and Protocols are Developed here.
