Public Engagement: More than just a tick box

How can a regulatory body be responsive to the public if they don’t meaningfully engage to understand what the public needs?
Public engagement is not a new concept. Professionals, organizations and institutions have spent a considerable amount of time and effort to position themselves as being responsive to public priorities.

Governments have required regulatory agencies to include the public in decision making as part of their governance structures, and regulators have sought out patient insights through surveys, focus groups, research and other means. 

Are these meaningful approaches or are they just tick boxes?

In health care, public engagement requires humanity, humility, and curiosity. Person centredness is the foundation of quality patient care and provides patients with safe spaces to share their priorities, goals, and stories and importantly leave them feeling seen, heard, and valued by their healthcare team. We know that person centred care cannot be achieved without an understanding of the public experience. The public are often overlooked as a resource by health care regulators even when they are directly impacted by regulatory decisions. 
Brett Baumback, Sue Robins, Melissa Sheldrick, and Jeff Whissell will share their stories of humanity, humility, and curiosity in health care, from their health professional and patient perspectives. The speakers will share their lessons learned from public engagement activities at Alberta College of Pharmacy (ACP). They will walk through a recent case study in which patient partners were meaningfully involved in the development of a new patient safety program. 

Jeff is the Deputy Registrar at ACP, and he will explore the rationale, opportunities, benefits, and challenges of public engagement for regulators and share a recent example where he first involved public partners to review their new Standards. 

As an author and patient engagement consultant, Sue will share the best practices in meaningful public engagement.   In addition to her work with ACP, Sue has guided public engagement efforts at the Stollery Children’s Hospital, BC Children’s Hospital, College of Registered Nurses of Alberta and Limestone Coast Local Health Network in Australia. Sue has shared her personal experiences as the mother of a disabled child and as a cancer patient as a member of the Canadian Medical Association’s Patient Voice group.  

Brett, the Quality Improvement Project Lead at ACP, will share a case study of public engagement from the College in which he collaborated with a Patient Working Group who had direct personal or family experience with drug errors. He’ll discuss his experience of working with these patients to develop and implement a continuous quality improvement program for Alberta pharmacies that captures reports of medication incidents and close calls.

Melissa’s lived experience as a mother who lost her son to medication errors has informed her role as Patient and Family Advisor & Acting Director, Consumer Reporting and Learning at Institute of Safe Medication Practices Canada. She will share her passion for drug error reporting, learning and prevention. As the Co-Chair with Brett to the Patient Working Group, she’ll share her experience of working with regulators to create safer systems. 

From this presentation, audience members will be able to understand the value of working directly with the public to enable their organizations to better serve the public’s interests. Understanding the public’s perspectives means creating safe spaces for people to share their experiences and, importantly, their wisdom. Humanity in regulation is needed now more than ever.

The session concludes with an off-the-record (i.e., not being recorded) Q&A and open discussion, offering attendees a candid forum to ask questions and exchange ideas.

Learning Objectives: 

• Recognize the value of the public’s perspective to regulatory bodies.
• Identify best practice in public engagement to avoid tokenism and learn how to build authentic relationships and trust with the public.
• Understand how to create safe spaces for public members to share their stories and the wisdom they have gained through their lived experiences.

Speakers:
Jeff Whissell, Deputy Registrar, Alberta College of Pharmacy

Sue Robins, Senior Partner, Bird Comm

Brett Baumback, Quality Improvement Project Lead, Alberta College of Pharmacy

Melissa Sheldrick, Patient and Family Advisor & Acting Director, Consumer Reporting and Learning at Institute of Safe Medication Practices Canada