Inviting the Voice of Patients and Their Families
The experience of patients and their families* helps shape how care is provided at Island Health. By sharing your perspective, we learn and understand what matters to you. Working together, we can achieve excellent health and care for everyone, everywhere, every time.
Engaging and partnering with patients and families is a priority in Island Health. It can lead to better decision-making in all aspects of supporting health and care from the bedside, to programs or services, and to budget and priority-setting.
*A patient is also a person, client and resident and family may include anyone that the patient considers an important source of support.
Island Health care team members and leaders work collaboratively with patients and family members across the organization to inform change and create a culture of patient and family-centered care.
Getting Involved
There are many ways you can participate in decisions about your own health as well as contribute to improving how care is provided within Island Health.
Participate in Your Own Care
In Island Health, we invite patients and family members to take an active role in their care. From sharing what you need, what matters to you and asking questions about your health and care, we want to be partners with you.
Consider Becoming a Patient Partner / Advisor
When patients and / or family members volunteer to partner with health care team members to impact change and improve quality of care, we refer to them as Patient Partners or Patient Advisors.
As a patient partner, you can work together with health care teams to design and inform changes to new and existing programs. You can also be invited to participate in advisory committees, councils, focus groups and projects. Providing feedback and recommendations on the development of patient and family education materials is also a valuable opportunity.
The Patient Advisory Council (PAC) is a dedicated group of volunteer Patient Advisors who meet regularly to provide patient and family perspectives and advice to health care leaders in Island Health. The PAC works to advance patient and family-centred care, support quality improvement and encourage meaningful patient engagement opportunities.
These volunteer patient and family members share their health care experience and partner with health care team members to improve quality care. This means providing insight into areas such as policy development, educational information, safety activities, and more.
Volunteer members of the PAC are also encouraged to become active patient partners with the Patient Voices Network (PVN).
Is this the volunteer role for you?
Have a look at our Patient Partner tip sheet for more information.