Guest Post: What Matters To You? Apr. 5, 2017 Guest Post, BCPSQC, Engagement

“What Matters to You?” Day started in Norway in 2014 with the aim of encouraging and supporting more meaningful conversations between people who provide health and social care and the people, families, and carers who receive that care. What began as a national effort has gained momentum as an international movement, with over 15 countries participating in this year’s event. 

As you know, when a health care provider starts a conversation by asking what really matters to the person they are caring for, it helps them to build trust, develop empathy, and understand their patients. Ultimately, it improves the quality of care they provide. The key purpose of the question is to promote dialogue and deep listening between providers and the people for which they care. 

As pharmacists, you play a key role in the health of patients and often have strong relationships with your patients. Asking a patient what really matters to them allows you to foster your relationship.  In the process, you may discover something about your patient that you wouldn’t have learned otherwise – you may even be able to offer more appropriate medication advice based on what you learned.  We would like to invite you to join us and participate in “What Matters to You?” Day. What a great excuse to have a “What Matters to You?” conversation with people you support and care for. While What Matters to You? Day is a single day of action, we encourage you to have multiple conversations and to keep having these conversations beyond the day itself.

In partnership with the Patient Voices Network Oversight & Advisory Committee and with health care organizations from across the province such as the College of Pharmacists, the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council is planning “What Matters to You?” Day in British Columbia on June 6th, 2017. 

Resources and a website have been created to support your What Matters to You? conversation. We invite you to learn more about the day, access free resources, and sign up to participate at www.whatmatterstoyoubc.ca.

Danielle Simpson

Danielle is the Leader, Innovation and Engagement at the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council supporting work related to teamwork, communication and culture change. Prior to joining the Council, she worked at Vancouver Coastal Health as the Evaluation Lead for Primary Health Care.

Danielle is passionate about improving the health of communities, and using data to do it. Whether it be creating change in Home Health, Primary Care or School Health, she loves to help find solutions to make our communities a better place to live. She has worked as an evaluator for many years and is especially passionate about using data visualization to effectively communicate data and evaluation results.