Empowering Patient Voices in Health Professional Education
To increase access and support for equity-deserving patient groups across BC to share their lived experiences with UBC health students.
Project Description
We believe that when the patient is acknowledged as a key partner and decision-maker in health, health care works better for everyone! The Patient and Community Partnership for Education program (PCPE) in UBC Health empowers patients and caregivers to share their stories and experiences with students. In 2022, more than 1,800 students across 12 UBC health programs benefited by learning from patients through activities such as workshops, mentorship and videos.
This program has been so successful and impactful that we are unable to meet the growing demand across UBC Health for more patient voices! Our pool of patient partners is limited because we don’t have capacity to reach out to more patients and organizations. With your support we aim to grow our patient engagement—particularly those from under-represented and equity-deserving communities who may need more support to enable their participation. This is a unique opportunity for British Columbians to come together and shape the future of health professional education in our province.
Challenges and Impact of Your Support
With financial support from donors like you, we will have the capacity to build on existing relationships with community-based patient health organizations, and create new ones, to increase access for marginalized, vulnerable, and rural and remote patients and communities, and to innovate the ways they can be involved, such as podcasts. Your donations will go a long way towards improving access for patient participants! For example:
- $50 could help cover local transit costs for a participant.
- $100 could help cover technology costs for a participant in a rural area.
- $500 could help cover catering for a community engagement event.
About the PCPE Program
PCPE is a unit within UBC Health that works to bring patient and community voices into the education of students in health and health-related disciplines to promote a partnership model of healthcare. We facilitate patient involvement across interdisciplinary education, research, and health systems. Under the leadership of Drs. Angela Towle and William Godolphin, and Assistant Director Cathy Kline, PCPE has become globally recognized for its work to mobilize patient knowledge to enhance health professional education and strengthen the provider-patient relationship.
