Experience is the Best Teacher:
Patient and Family Advisors at the Forefront of Provider Education
Caroline Moore, MPH, Barbara Sarnoff Lee, LICSW, and Patient and Family Advisors
The Opportunity
Over the past five years, Patient and Family Advisors have
contributed valuable, experience-based feedback to quality
improvement initiatives at BIDMC through participation in Patient
and Family Advisory Councils, hospital committees, and projectspecific task forces. In these roles, they share the table with staff
and providers, engaging as part of a team.
Interventions
Advisors have engaged as teachers in a variety of settings and modalities:
Nurse Competency Trainings, "Going from Good to Great"
Schwartz Rounds and Critical Care Rounds
Teaching Staff about Patient Privacy
Teaching staff and providers how to talk to patients about Ebola
Conversation Ready
Advisors also serve on focus groups, complete surveys, consult on
environmental design projects, and review patient education
materials, offering advice to those who seek their input. In these
roles, they engage in the background; their collected opinions
influence decisions.
Lessons Learned
Patient and Family advisors, through live, video, or audio
presentations in the classroom, conference room, and
auditorium, can turn the expert model of teaching on its head
and drive improvement through the power of stories and
personal perspectives.
Through these opportunities, patient and family “teachers”
express appreciation for the complexity on the side of the
health care provider, while providers appreciate looking
beyond the data, and learning from the powerful voices of
patients and families. Utilizing Advisors as teachers will break
down barriers to working with patients and family members
to drive change in the healthcare setting.
Placing Advisors at the front of the room as teachers has emerged as
an enhanced role that has widespread application at an academic
medical center.
Progress to Date
Goal
Placing patients and family members at the forefront of
educational opportunities, creates a bidirectional learning
experience that enhances understanding on both sides of
the relationship. It also breaks down resistance to adopting
patient engagement as a means to achieving patient-andfamily-centered care.
While it is early to determine if utilizing advisors as teachers
has had a quantifiable impact on provider education, it is
our hope that continued engagement of patient and family
advisors in the teaching setting will play a significant role in
improving quality, safety, and the patient experience.
Next Steps
We will continue to explore and promote opportunities to
have Patient and Family Advisors bring their voices into the
educational setting. Staff and providers responsible for
education should consider contacting the Patient and Family
Engagement program to learn how to engage Patient and
Family Advisors in trainings or conferences.
The Opportunity
•
Over the past five years, Patient and Family Advisors have
contributed valuable, experience-based feedback to quality
improvement initiatives at BIDMC through participation in
Patient and Family Advisory Councils, hospital committees, and
project-specific task forces. In these roles, they share the table
with staff and providers, engaging as part of a team.
•
Advisors also serve on focus groups, complete surveys, consult
on environmental design projects, and review patient education
materials, offering advice to those who seek their input. In these
roles, they engage in the background; their collected opinions
influence decisions.
•
Utilizing Advisors in a teaching role has emerged as an enhanced
role that has widespread applications at an academic medical
center.
The Goal
Traditionally, health care providers and staff members are
taught by other health care experts - providers, staff
members, or hired trainers - about issues that impact patient
experience, quality of care, and safety. Capturing and
conveying the patient point of view in the teaching setting has
mainly relied upon the utilization of aggregated satisfaction
data. Such data lacks depth, and is not able to tell a story in
the same way that a patient or family member can.
Placing patients and family members at the forefront of
educational opportunities creates a bidirectional learning
experience that enhances understanding on both sides of the
relationship. It also has the potential to break down staff
resistance to adopting patient engagement as a means to
achieving patient-and-family-centered care.
The Interventions
Advisors have engaged as teachers in a variety of settings
and modalities:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Advisors have engaged as teachers in a variety of settings and modalities:
Nurse Competency Trainings, "Going from Good to Great"
Schwartz Rounds and Critical Care Rounds
Teaching Staff about Patient Privacy
Teaching staff and providers how to talk to patients about Ebola
Conversation Ready
Topic-specific advisor video library for future trainings
Progress to Date
While it is early to determine if utilizing advisors as teachers
has had a quantifiable impact on the efficacy of provider
education, we are seeing positive preliminary feedback from
staff and provider learners, as well as an increase in requests
for advisors as educators.
Preliminary evaluation data from Nurse Competency Training:
Lessons Learned
•
The best experts in the field of patient experience are patients themselves. Utilizing the voices of
actual patients and family members in the teaching setting can send a more impactful message
than using satisfaction data, or having staff members teach about patient experience from their
own lenses.
•
Patient and Family advisors, through live, video, or audio presentations in the classroom,
conference room, and auditorium, can turn the expert model of teaching on its head and drive
improvement through the power of stories and personal perspectives.
•
Through these opportunities, patient and family “teachers” express appreciation for the
complexity on the side of the health care provider, while providers appreciate looking beyond the
data, and learning from the powerful voices of patients and families. Utilizing Advisors as teachers
will break down barriers to working with patients and family members to drive change in the
healthcare setting.
Next Steps
We will continue to explore and promote
opportunities to have Patient and Family
Advisors bring their voices into the
educational setting. Staff and providers
responsible for education should
consider contacting the Patient and
Family Engagement program to learn
how to engage Patient and Family
Advisors in trainings or conferences.
For More Information Please Contact:
Caroline Moore, MPH, Program Leader
BIDMC Patient and Family Engagement
cpmoore@BIDMC.Harvard.edu