Online Patient & Family Engagement Curriculum
Leveraging the Lived Experience: A Curriculum
Engaging those with lived experience is an effective strategy to improve quality, patient safety and the patient experience across health care settings. Acute care hospitals and other health care organizations have been actively engaging Patient & Family Advisors (PFAs) at the organizational and governance levels. However, the extent to which staff and PFAs are prepared to work effectively together varies widely. With adequate preparation and training, staff and PFAs can form authentic partnerships that not only improve an organization’s culture of safety and engagement, but also create positive results evident at all levels of care.
A Community Approach to Patient and Family Engagement
Funded by the Endowment for Health, A Community Approach to Patient and Family Engagement was created with the goal of understanding how those with lived experience could be better engaged across the continuum of care, particularly at the organizational and governance level of healthcare settings. Following an extensive interview process, literature review and community meetings with organizations across the continuum of care, the primary identified need was to have an accessible training for staff and volunteers new to Patient and Family Engagement. This curriculum is a result of extensive collaboration across the state of New Hampshire.
Filling a critical gap, this training proves a guide for developing Patient and Family Engagement Programs in all healthcare settings. This curriculum is meant to empower healthcare organizations with the knowledge, skills, and tools to develop PFE expertise within organizations and to customize and enhance Engagement Programs.
How can I use this Curriculum to Build a PFE Program?
Who does your organization serve? All organizations, whether an acute care hospital, out-patient clinic, public health organization or other organization, can benefit by including the people that they serve as advisors. This curriculum will provide you valuable opportunity to both assess and engage others in constructive conversation about your organization’s culture of engagement, identifying areas of strength and improvement along the way. There are options for structuring an Engagement Program and these sessions will go beyond the basics to help you develop a program that works for your organization.
Who should participate?
This curriculum has two parts, designed for both advisors and staff. The staff portion is designed to support and build the skills of staff who will be leading the Engagement Program. The information will be useful to those who are already working with advisors, as well as to those new to this journey. The second set of sessions are designed as an orientation and training for advisors. Advisor-focused training sessions will provide prospective, new, and even seasoned Patient and Family Advisors a clear sense of their role, duties and best practices in the field of patient and family engagement.
About the Creator and Narrator
Tanya Lord PhD, MPH
Tanya was a special education teacher turned stay-at-home mom when her life dramatically changed as a result of her son Noah’s devastating health care experience. This profound experience sparked a passion to engage in improving the safety and quality of healthcare for everyone. Returning to school to advance her training in the field, she currently holds a Masters of Public Health from the University of New Hampshire and a Doctorate in Clinical and Population Health Research from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. While a graduate student, Tanya learned improvement science, research methods and worked with many experts. However, there always seemed to be something missing: the voice and experiences of patients. This observation spurred Tanya to become a national leader in assisting health care organizations to recognize and include the voices of those with lived experience in organizational design and health care quality improvement.
Today, Tanya holds the title of Director of Patient and Family Engagement at the Foundation for Healthy Communities in Concord, NH. The main purpose of this work is to collaborate with all NH hospitals to improve the quality of care through strengthened partnerships with patients and families. This role allows her to combine her expertise in Quality Improvement and Human-Centered Design Strategies with her passion for including all healthcare stakeholders. Tanya also consults, teaches, and serves as a keynote speaker on national circuits related to patient safety, quality improvement, and patient/family engagement. Her passion, initiated by tragedy, is sustained by hope for a safer healthcare system.
