Empowerment Through Self-Advocacy

This project illustrates how we identified a patient, established a relationship with them, and assisted them in navigating the healthcare system. Using our JCIPE resources we reached out to EL, a patient with a significant medical history of ESRD, PTSD, and COPD whose daughter was her primary caregiver and liaison. During our time together, we targeted our efforts to increase compliance with patient dialysis appointments. We established a relationship with the patient by scheduling monthly phone calls and attending a dialysis appointment. We also reached out to her nephrologist and primary care provider to facilitate communication with the patient. We rotated team leads monthly in order to share responsibility and ensure fluid communication with EL. During our last few months together, we saw our patient and their family anticipating their own needs and reaching out to their PCP to address them unprompted by our team. EL expressed that she and her daughter have found better ways of communicating with their PCP and nephrologist and they have also felt empowered to see a new psychiatrist since they were not satisfied with their current provider. As a result the team found better ways of communicating with patients and had a better understanding of how chronic illness can affect the patient and their social networks. Experience working on interprofessional teams should be integrated into all health professional schools in order to prepare students for their future careers working on multidisciplinary teams.

Theme: Client/Patient/Family and Community-Engaged and Co-created Practice and Education
Subtheme: Patient and community members as interprofessional educators