#9: Ignite Change Within
Finding my groove at a patient engagement conference and a great book from a patient advocate that you should need to ignite change in healthcare.
Spring brings a new energy to life, which I desperately needed two years into the pandemic. In this issue, I’m excited to share with you what has rejuvenated me in recent weeks: highlights from my attendance at the BC SUPPORT Unit’s Putting Patients First 2022 conference, woven together with quotes from Sue Robins’ recent book, Ducks in a Row: Health Care Reimagined. I’ve also got a quick “how-to” for abstract writing, and other books I’ve been reading.
Research IS Healthcare.
In my previous job, I had a coworker, John. Aside from being a riot to work with, he was a huge basketball fan; with the NCAA Round of 32 on in the background as I type, it’s no wonder I’m thinking of him right now.
John was diagnosed with glioblastoma in the summer of 2012. Research can be a way for patients to gain access to drugs that save lives - on in cases like John’s, months of meaning with his young family.
I remember him exploring possible trials, but ultimately they did not work out. I still wonder how things might have been different for him if there was more research available, and whether we can make it different for others in the future if research is more accepted as part of care.
Research is so often viewed as a “nice to have” (as long as we have all our ducks in a row), but waiting for the perfect moment to integrate research leaves it to never be included more fully in healthcare.
“Can systems change? First there must be recognition that systems are made up of people. People created the system, so people can dismantle the system too.” - Sue Robins
To Change the System, We Need Relationships.
We still do not take enough time to build relationships with others.
Yet if the system is, in fact, connections of people, then how can we not? Carving time to meet with colleagues, with patients, and with communities, isn’t a luxury, but a necessary condition for lasting change.
“That’s why calling interpersonal skills ‘soft skills’ is so ridiculous. Working with people is much harder than knowing facts. Perhaps it is time to stop equating soft with being easy.” - Sue Robins
Ask Yourself: Who's at the Table?
“Don’t use the term ‘hard-to-reach’ because it suggests the problem with engagement lies with the groups, not the researchers.”
Who is coming to the conversation? The people who can afford to take time off of work, or who have ready child-care, or who are retired? The people who have access to transportation?
Simply put, does everyone around the table look the same?
Being more purposeful in engaging those with a diversity of experiences is not easy. But it’s a whole lot harder to try to find support in a system that has historically been oppressive.
We can do better.
Share Your Science: Writing an Abstract
Reading Rainbow
Aside from devouring Sue’s book, I finally finished Obama’s presidential memoirs. It was a great listen to accompany baking and crocheting over a long winter. Political science is not a deep interest of mine, but I found it fascinating to hear the personal aspects of running campaigns, the negotiations involved in his policy decisions, and how his recount of events was, in fact, an act of politics.