Posted
Closed
Commitment: Short-term
Connection method: Virtual
Open to Interior Region
Posted
Volunteer Opportunity
Have your say as a reviewer and lend your editing skills for a brand new “welcome letter” that will be critical to respectifully informing patients about the Vernon Urgent Primary Care Centre.
Lead Organization/Department
Interior Health, Vernon Urgent Primary Care Centre
Aim
The Vernon Urgent Primary Care Centre is taking on new patients for ongoing primary care. When a patient joins the clinic, we would like to welcome them with a letter explaining who we are, and what it means to be ‘attached’ to the clinic for primary care moving forward. Patient partner input on the “welcome letter” is essential to ensure it is respectful and patient-centred.
The role of the patient partner would be to review the “welcome letter” and provide patient perspective and input. The patient partners would help ensure the “welcome letter”:
– Is comprehensive, respectful and patient-centred
– Has language that achieves its informative goals from a patient perspective.
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 from: the Interior Health region.
• Comfort with editing or reviewing documents.
• Some familiarity with Microsoft Office and/or Microsoft Word.
• Comfortable sharing your feedback, thoughts and feelings about urgent primary care services.
• Please note:
– The placement process for this opportunity may include an informal interview between the volunteer and the health care partner.
– Preference for appplicants to have previously attended a PVN orientation session and completed the Patient Partner Commitments form. If you have not attended an orientation session but you are interested in this opportunity, please contact Charmaine Niebergall directly to see if accommodations may be possible.
Logistics
• Number of vacancies: 2
• Date/Time: To be determined
• Location: Virtually using Zoom
• Commitment: 2 hours total of time over 1 or 2 virtual meetings
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 Charmaine Niebergall cniebergall@bcpsqc.ca to see if support options are available. We are always seeking to better understand and reduce barriers to participation.
Background
The Vernon Urgent Primary Care Centre (UPCC) is a unique clinic that offers urgent, primary care visits, but also attaches patients for longitudinal, ongoing primary care. We have a group practice in a team based care setting with physicians, nurse practitioners (NPs), registered nurses and psychiatric nurses (RNs & RPNs), social workers and mental health counsellors. We work with a number of folks who experience challenges with mental health concerns, substance use and social factors in addition to complex medical issues.
The Vernon UPCC has a Quality Improvement Working Group that meets regularly to develop processes, and improve the care at the clinic. This working group includes the NP lead, the clinic manager, the physician lead, the North Okanagan Director, nursing leadership, data analysts and guests who may join intermittently to share updates from the Ministry of Health or provide updates from other sectors. We would like for patients to feel welcomed to our clinic when they are ‘attached’, and understand the relationship they have to our clinic. Our aim is for the ‘welcome letter’ to identify the expectations for us as their primary care provider, and for them as one of our patients moving forward. We want to ensure they understand what primary care means, and that we want to help them with their health, while developing a therapeutic relationship.
