Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care, Inc.

The knowledge and skills that health care professionals gain over the course of their education shape the interactions they have with patients and families throughout their careers.

When health professionals learn from and with patients and their families, they are better prepared to promote and support patients and families as full partners in their care. Many academic institutions are adopting new models of education for health professionals that are less didactic and more experiential; despite this trend, it is still rare that instruction in health professions education actually includes patients and families as partners. In 2019, NYHealth awarded a grant to the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care (IPFCC) to create and pilot a patient and family faculty training program in New York City hospitals.

Under this grant, IPFCC created a program to prepare patients and families to participate as faculty in the education of health care professionals. A national advisory committee of clinical faculty and patient and family leaders was formed to advise with the development, piloting, and dissemination of the training program. A national study was conducted to learn more about the extent to which academic medical centers involve patients and families as faculty, as well as how patients and families are helping to integrate the core concepts of patient- and family-centered care into curriculum and learning. Based on the findings from the national committee and the study, training resources were designed for use in academic medical centers and other hospitals, ambulatory clinics, health systems, and schools of medicine, nursing, and other allied health professions. The training were piloted at five New York City teaching hospitals: Northwell Health, NYU School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and Montefiore Medical Center. Following the trainings, teams from the medical centers were assessed on their knowledge of and confidence in participating in and/or facilitating patient and family faculty programs. The teams also provided recommendations for improvements to and/or use of the training materials. IPFCC’s training program was then disseminated to other institutions that educate and train health professionals in developing or strengthening patient and family faculty programs. IPFCC conducted outreach to organizations in New York State and nationally that have an interest and experience in partnering with patient and family advisors to improve health care quality and safety.