Engaging Patient Family Advisors to advance guideline implementation at Scarborough Health Network

Scarborough Health Network (SHN) (Home - Scarborough Health Network (shn.ca) is an organization pursuing Best Practice Spotlight Organization® (BPSO®) designation in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Patient Family Advisors (PFAs) are a vital part of SHN’s philosophy of care, representing the diverse community SHN serves. A key element of the PFA role is sharing lived experiences with SHN staff and the Scarborough community.

SHN has demonstrated commitment to the role of PFAs within their organization by creating a new department for health equity, patient and community engagement (HEPCE). This department focuses on:

• recruiting, onboarding, managing, recognizing and retaining PFAs
• educating staff on best practices related to engaging with PFAs

During recruitment and onboarding, the HEPCE and current PFAs educate potential PFAs about the role’s scope and expectations. All PFAs are also provided with information on how to share their patient or caregiver story with their audience.  

PFAs have played an important role in SHN’s BPSO committee. Indeed, one PFA has been integral to the process of recruiting and engaging champions at SHN throughout the COVID-19 pandemic’s health human resources (HHR) crisis. Their role has included participating in champions’ virtual drop-in sessions (2020-2021) and in-person roadshows (2022).

Champion roadshows are events during, which SHN practice leaders and PFAs promote the BPSO program, share best practice guidelines and recruit champions around the organization, without asking busy staff members to leave their units.

The PFA also supported the recruitment and engagement of champions by:

• collaborating with other champions and working group members to plan champions’ drop-in sessions and roadshows
• working alongside the team to plan safe spaces for staff and PFAs to share their stories
• sharing stories of positive experiences with staff members in relation to the impact of best practices (for example, RNAO’s Person and Family Centred-Care best practice guideline) on their experience

Staff members have reported being motivated to become best practice champions after attending a champion’s roadshow. SHN has also consistently gained champions during the HHR crisis and maintains at least 15 per cent of nursing staff as best practice champions.

The PFA’s role was vital to demonstrating the lasting impact of best practices. They have expressed feeling empowered by their role in BPSO work, expressing that the work helped them find their voice and become part of the movement to promote and implement best practices.  

Overall, PFAs play an essential – and dual – role in supporting the implementation of best practices at SHN. In line with person- and family-centred care, PFAs assume an outward-facing role in shaping the implementation of best practices and SHN’s values. In addition, they also act in an inward-facing role to support the bolstering of champions.

To learn more about the PFA role at SHN, please visit the following link: Patient Family Advisors.

Shared with permission by Scarborough Health Network