You’ve created an interprofessional Chapter including students and faculty from multiple schools/programs on your campus. You have the health care organization perspective. Now what?
Invite a patient or family advisor from a nearby health system to join your Chapter! The movement toward patient- and family-centered care highlights the importance of including patients and those who care for them in care design, delivery, measurement, assessment, and improvement.
You could invite a patient for a one-time meeting or ask him or her to join the Chapter on an ongoing basis. Patients and family members of patients often want to give back and make the system better for themselves or others. They can work with your faculty advisor to support the Chapter, and they’ll bring a fresh perspective to your discussions. What better way to find out what patients want than to have them in the room?
So where do you find a patient or family advisor? We recommend working with your faculty advisor to contact a nearby health care organization. Ask if the hospital or health care organization has a patient advisor, patient navigator, or family advisory board program; if so, these patient and family members are wonderful resources to join or mentor your Chapter.
This is possibly a new experience for both those in your chapter and the patients and/or family members. Make efforts to assure everyone is involved is comfortable. The most important part of these sessions is the respectful listening and learning; not every issue needs to be debated and resolved.
Discussion Questions
You could ask these questions if the patient/family member joins during a meeting OR use this in a planning meeting with them to help shape the goals of your Chapter. Please keep in mind these are personal experiences and may evoke emotional responses. Some patients and families may be more willing to share than others.
- What do we do well?
- What is one thing we could as health care professionals to make your last experience better?
- Are you included in the decisions made about your care? How so?
- How do you choose your care providers? (Family friend, co-worker recommendation, online ratings, etc.?) Do you feel this is an effective/efficient way of finding the best care?
- Do you have a patient or family experience you would like to share? What was the high and low of this experience?
