Partnering with Patients/family Advocates to Teach Patient Engagement to Interprofessional Health Professions Students

At the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Patients/Family Advocates helped develop four Patient Safety/Quality Improvement sessions within a required interprofessional education team-based learning course for all dental, medical, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, physician assistant and anesthesiologist assistant pre-licensure students in 2012. Since then, Patients/Family Advocates also help teach the ‘Patient Engagement’ session that introduces how patients/family members can be health care partners at the individual, system and societal level. Advocates have three roles during this session. First, they represent the patient/family voice and role in health care and health professions education. Second, they are a resource to student teams as they determine the best strategy to engage a patient/family at the individual level during their application exercises. Third, they provide feedback and encouragement to student teams during report outs and inter-team discussions. In effect, they join the faculty facilitators as being a visiting ‘guide on the side’ with authentic expertise in this content area.

This presentation addresses the conference theme of “Integrating Patients and Families in Interprofessional Practice and Education” through its focus on how patients/family members partnered in designing/developing interprofessional curriculum and how they continue to be integrated into its implementation. This presentation will share knowledge about how to identify and engage Patients/Family Advocates in curriculum development, as well as tips on recruitment and development of Patients/Family Advocates for classroom team-based learning. We will also share feedback from students, faculty, and Patients/Advocates about their involvement and promotion of better care through better education.

Funding Attribution: The Patient Safety/Quality Improvement sessions were developed while the presenter was supported by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation as a Macy Faculty Scholar.