The Afternoon Symposium

The Afternoon Symposium was “powered by PechaKucha,” and it was indeed powerful. Throughout “Patients First Playbook,” eight speakers spoke for 20 seconds on each of 20 slides to present a total six-minute capsule of their perspective on patient-first care. Dr Dawn Stacey, 50th Marion Woodward Lecturer, offered observations between sessions. Among the speakers were faculty, students, patients, and caregivers. Their recommendations included:

• Open up research to patient collaborators and incorporate them fully into the partnership. The extra time it takes to explain and speak in layman’s terms is compensated by invaluable access to the perspective of lived experience.

— Anita David

• Develop programs like Warrior Women’s Wellness (walking group) to offer vulnerable populations strength in numbers; to build relationships among neighbours; to impart the courage, time, support, and incentive to explore community programs; and to provide access to third party initiatives.

— Jessica Webb

• Listen to the staff — no one is better-positioned than those on the front line to observe and offer suggestions for improving access to health care. Visit EQUIPhealthcare.ca for more tools and ideas for equity-building in practice.

— Colleen Varcoe

• After gathering your data, feed it back into the system to use in practice and to fuel change in policy.

— Sabrina Wong

• Accept the value of qualitative research to obtain patient perspectives.

— Manpreet Thandi

• Take the time to develop knowledge and trust between patient and caregiver to build a cohesive health care team.

— Carolyn Canfield

• Make use of innovative devices such as photovoice to build trust and confidence, to open up difficult conversations, and to assist in an engaging form of knowledge transfer.

— Henry Wu

• Artificial intelligence is another such device. Use it to connect with a challenging patient, which is worth every effort. Everyone has the capacity to teach when we show a willingness to learn.

— Mario Gregorio and Lillian Hung

More about Dr Dawn Stacey and all Pecha Kucha presenters with links to their presentations, as well as links to photos of the events can be found at nursing.ubc.ca/touchpointsx