Recruiting Patient Advisers

Recruiting Patient Advisers

One of the most common questions regarding starting to use Patient Advisers in Patient and Family Engagement is, “Where do I find patients to do this?”

Although a facility may welcome dozens to hundreds of patients through their doors every day, selecting the group of patients that should serve as advisers may seem daunting.

What do you look for in Patient and Family Advisers?

• A diverse group representing the facility demography and diagnostic services.
• Individuals who will participate collaboratively on committees and councils.
• Individuals willing to make a commitment to be trained and to attend meetings regularly.
• If a patient or family member has had an adverse event, generally at some time from that event should elapse before they serve. An adverse event should not preclude service.

You will gain vast insights into your quality, safety and service from those who may seem the most unlikely. Criteria you do not need to use in selecting patient advisers:

• Education. Advisers do not need to have as much as a High School diploma to be effective in serving. While basic literacy is helpful, medical literacy should not be a criterion. Patients who have literacy issues may help your organization better serve the large number of patients like them.
• English speaking. Accommodations can be made to support linguistic differences.
• Income. Some patients may need support to attend meetings, such as a waiver of parking fees.

How do you find patient advisers?

• Ask your providers or service lines to make recommendations of who, from among the patients they serve, they would like to see represent them in this capacity. Asking for a patient to “represent” will result in significantly higher likelihood of receiving potential names than asking for a “referral.”
• Who in your facility takes patient complaints? Ask that person for recommendations of patients who, although they have complained, have also offered solutions to the problems they encountered.
• How does your Volunteer Department solicit volunteers? Ask them to post an adviser job announcement on their volunteer recruitment bulletin board or web site.
• You may ask Community Partners, such as organizations that represent specific diseases or groups of patients for recommendations. You do not want overly-vocal community advocates, however, who may not be interested in working collaboratively.

Don’t forget to ask staff to be on a Patient and Family Advisory Council or Committee.

• Ask Hospital leadership to be involved (CEO, CNO, CMO).
• Look for patient-centered champions or service-excellence champions.
• Select staff based on current hospital goals. For example, if you are in a building phase, your staff PFAC members may include your Facilities Manager. If your hospital is working on Nurse Shift Change at Bedside, your staff may include unit Nursing Managers. These staff members will contribute to collaborative discussions with the Patient Advisers about their areas of interest.