Tomorrow is the Last Day to Submit
Quality Awards Nominations!

If you haven’t submitted your nominations for the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council’s 2018 Quality Awards, this is the moment: the deadline is tomorrow!

Don’t miss this great chance to celebrate projects and people who inspired you to add your voice to activities aiming to improve quality of care. Learn more about the Leadership in Advancing the Patient Voice category, plus seven additional categories, and submit your nomination.

What Matters to You?
Patients of All Ages Share Their Stories

Our Engagement Leader Leah Smith joined “What Matters to You?” Day activities at three Island Health hospitals and wrote about what patients, families and caregivers told her.

“Having a positive relationship with health care providers was very important to most people. Many described sensitivity, compassion, respect, kindness, partnership and clear communication as important in their relationship with their health care providers. Perhaps most of all I was struck by the similarity of the responses we received and how closely they mirrored the definition of patient- and family-centred care.”

Read the full blog post.

Listen Up! A Podcast Just Interviewed PVN Members

The latest episode of the Patient Safety and Learning System's podcast features an interview with our patient partners Sandra Zelinsky, Michel White and Beth Campbell Duke.

In the 21-minute episode, named Including the voices of patients and families: A collaborative approach to patient safety, they shared their personal experiences and talked openly about why partnering with patients and families must be a key priority across our health care system.

They were selected to participate through an engagement opportunity we promoted in March, and we're so excited to hear their stories and ideas! Thank you once again for sharing your experience and knowledge with us, Sandra, Michel and Beth!

Listen to the full episode. You can also read the transcript.

Hear from a Patient Partner:
When Cancer is Your "New Normal"

In this article for the BC Cancer Agency, our patient partner Sunaina Sharma shares the powerful story of her experience adjusting to life after cancer. Even after treatments are finished, cancer survivors can experience ongoing impacts on their mental and physical health. Sunaina talks about the struggles she’s faced, the support she’s found, and how she has grown.

Read Sunaina’s story.

Share Your Work & Ideas at Quality Forum 2018!

Over 1200 people will be at Quality Forum 2018 : People-Powered Improvement, which will take place in Vancouver from February 21-23!

Now in its 7^th year, the Forum features presentations and interactive workshops on a variety of topics related to improving quality across the continuum of care. And it’s also an excellent opportunity for you to show the world your work on any topic related to improving quality of care!

You can submit an abstract to deliver a rapid fire presentation or display a storyboard by following a simple, four-step process. Abstracts are due by September 8.

Abstracts are divided into two categories. If you have tips and lessons from a project that you can share with participants, choose the Demonstrated Results category. And if you have original thinking, promising practices or emerging ways of "how to improve care" that are too young to have results, choose the Novel Ideas category.

We know this may sound just a little biased, but we’re especially looking forward to learning about PVN engagement opportunities. We know that there are many inspiring findings, experiences and ideas out there!

Updates from Our Oversight & Advisory Committee

Our fourth PVN Oversight & Advisory Committee meeting of the year took place on June 22, with discussions about our progress on developing quality improvement education resources for patient partners, endorsement of the new PVN Strategic Plan (stay tuned for an exciting announcement soon!), reflections on the committee's first year, and discussing the year ahead.

Here are the meeting minutes if you`d like to learn more about what was discussed!

Know Someone Making a Difference in Mental Health?

CAMH Difference Makers is a national movement inviting nominations to celebrate 150 Canadians who are contributing to mental health. Nominate anyone – whether they’re a patient, a caregiver, a health care professional, or someone else – who’s helping to improve mental health care and break down the stigma around mental illness and addiction.

Nominate a mental health changemaker by July 1.

Upcoming Events

Social Media Essentials: Social Media Drop-In Help
June 30 | Vancouver

Patient Partner Orientation Session - Haisla
July 5 | Haisla

Capturing Value in Patient Voices and Perspectives
July 20 | Webinar

Patient Partner Orientation Session – Fraser Valley
July 25 | Webinar

See all the events in our calendar.

Questions or Suggestions?

Your feedback is very important to us. What kinds of volunteer opportunities are you interested in? What else would you like to see in our newsletters?

Send us an email, phone 604.668.8240 or 1.877.282.1919, or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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