Patient & Family Centred Care Week Begins


Alberta Health Services’ Patient & Family Centred Care Week goes from November 6-10, 2017. A number of events are being held across the province to honour this week. Check out the program to see what is happening over the next five days. Here is hoping you will be able to participate in some of the activities.

A Day in the Life

As part of Patient & Family Centred Care Week, which goes from November 6th-10th, 2017 and Change Day, which occurs on November 17th, 2017, the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services has initiated a “Lived Experience” activity. For one day, healthcare professionals will walk in the shoes of a patient as a way of gaining greater insight, understanding, and compassion for what it is their patients live each and every day.

Click on the image below to see what shoes Paul and some other healthcare professionals will be walking in.

Pts4Chg Fishbowl – Thanks and Themes

On October 17th, Patients 4 Change (Pts4Chg) hosted a Fishbowl event as part of Alberta Health Services’ Patient & Family Centred Care week. The fishbowl format was chosen as it encourages a genuine dialogue and conversation, rather than a panel-like, prepared presentation. Eight individuals volunteered to be fish in the bowl and were the key conversationalists for the event. Members of the audience “jumped” in and out of the bowl to ask questions and make comments. 

Although fishbowls are typically held in person, the Pts4Chg fishbowl was held virtually. Unfortunately, technical problems that started in the morning and continued throughout the day saw our virtual fishbowl experiencing a few unexpected challenges. Nevertheless, despite the “rough waters” that were present, a very lively, open, and honest discussion ensued around the following questions:

1. What does partnering with patients and families look like to you?
2. How do you build rapport and grow relationships in health care that make for effective and equitable partnerships?
3. What are some of the current barriers to partnership? How could these barriers be removed or minimized?

Click here to find out what themes arose from the Pts4Chg fishbowl. (Thanks, Sandi, for helping to create this document.)

Based on the feedback received, the Pts4Chg fishbowl was a very successful and worthwhile event. This, however, would not have been possible without an active audience, and our amazing school of fish – Debbie, Mike, Aaron, Sandi, Philip, Terry, Jane and Kristina. Thanks so much!

Richard and Tracy

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who joined us in the Fishbowl last night. What a great time and and an interesting conversation! Special thanks to our fish – Debbie, Mike, Aaron, Sandi, Philip, Terry, Jane and Kristina. You were super! Thanks also to Richard. Your efforts in bringing this event about were not overlooked and were much appreciated. Thanks so much! Tracyweb-fish-thank-you-front