GUELPH – Guelph General Hospital is recruiting volunteers to join its patient and family advisory council.
Members use their firsthand experience receiving care as a patient, being a family member, or caregiver to contribute perspective.
Advisors lend their voice and lived experience to key activities, projects, and committees.
“I have needed Guelph General Hospital at times in my life especially since 2013, when I became a tetraplegic, paralyzed in a car accident,” said patient and family advisory council member Gwen Sharp.
“Volunteering on the council since 2018 has given me a way to give back to my community. I have experiences to share to make things better for other patients.”
Sharp said committee members learn how the hospital works and where things can be improved, and use their own experiences to suggest changes.
“My ideas are listened to, appreciated, and respected,” Sharp continued.
“I also get to see the complexity of delivering health care and the professional, caring, dedicated people working every day to improve the patient and family experience.”
The patient and family advisory council is a welcoming and collaborative environment for anyone at least 18 years old, who has been a patient or supported a patient at Guelph General Hospital in the past three years, officials note.
The council meets monthly, and some of the ongoing projects that advisors participate in include patient surveying, quality improvement planning, and reviewing patient and family educational material.
“Committees where an advisor is part of the conversation are far more meaningful,” patient services and chief nursing executive Melissa Skinner said.
Application forms are available at gghorg.ca/patient-family-council, or by emailing gghpatientexpereince@gghorg.ca.
