Reflections on patient engagement by patient partners: how it can go wrong

Research Involvement and Engagement

Comment

Sue Robins¹  Laurie Proulx²  Dawn P. Richards³  Vina Mohabir⁴  Sabrina Poirier⁵  Jeffery Smith⁶ 

[1] Bird Communications, Vancouver, BC, Canada;Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance, Ottawa, ON, Canada;Patient Partner, Ottawa, ON, Canada;Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada;Five02 Labs Inc., Toronto, ON, Canada;Patient Partner, Toronto, ON, Canada;Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada;Patient Partner for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research, Halifax, NS, Canada;Patient Partner for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Research, Toronto, ON, Canada;

关键词: Patient engagement;    Family engagement;    Patient and public involvement;    Power dynamics in healthcare;    Power imbalance;    Tokenism;    Patient partner;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40900-023-00454-1

 received in 2023-03-16, accepted in 2023-06-09,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

As six patient partners in Canada, we aim to contribute to learning and to provide an opportunity to reflect on patient engagement (PE) in research and healthcare environments. Patient engagement refers to “meaningful and active collaboration in governance, priority setting, conducting research and knowledge translation” with patient partners as members of teams, rather than participants in research or clinical care. While much has been written about the benefits of patient engagement, it is important to accurately document and share what we term ‘patient engagement gone wrong.’ These examples have been anonymized and presented as four statements: patient partners as a check mark, unconscious bias towards patient partners, lack of support to fully include patient partners, and lack of recognizing the vulnerability of patient partners. The examples provided are intended to demonstrate that patient engagement gone wrong is more common than discussed openly, and to simply bring this to light. This article is not intending to lay blame, rather to evolve and improve patient engagement initiatives. We ask those who interact with patient partners to reflect so we can all work towards improving patient engagement. Lean into the discomfort with these conversations as that is the only way to change these all too recognizable examples, and which will lead to better project outcomes and experiences for all team members.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

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