Patient engagement is increasingly recognized as an essential component of high-quality, person-centered healthcare. Evidence-based research shows that engaged patients are able to make more informed decisions about their own health which promotes mutual accountability and leads to more efficient use of scarce health resources. While there is little disagreement about the value of an engaged patient population, in practice it can be challenging for health centers to design interventions and policies that facilitate full engagement. In this four-part virtual learning collaborative, health center teams will work with other teams across the country to explore a framework for patient and family engagement. Participants will explore a continuum of engagement that examines individual interactions, institutional design, and larger policy design implications. Particular attention will be paid to the needs of special and vulnerable patients, who may experience greater challenges in health center engagement. In this four-part interactive series, the Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN), the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC), and the Institute for Family and Patient Centered Care (IFPCC) will work with health centers - both care teams and individual CHC participants - to improve knowledge and skills around evidence-based strategies for patient engagement and activation. The modules will focus on the following:

Pam provides consultation and training to health care organizations; serves as faculty for IPFCC seminars, webinars, and meetings; and assists with strategic planning to scale up the practice of patient- and family-centered care. Prior to joining IPFCC, Pam was a principal researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) where her work focused on stakeholder engagement; patient-centered measurement; and the development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies and interventions to promote patient and family engagement (PFE). While at AIR, Pam led work to develop and evaluate the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety. She also directed a project to provide PFE-related training and technical assistance to the Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks (HIINs) and their member hospitals as part of CMS’s Partnership for Patients initiative.

Jillian Bird, MSN, RN, the Nurse Training Manager at National Nurse-Led Care Consortium, is passionate and driven in her commitment to nursing and supporting nurse-led health care delivery. Prior to NNCC she worked in the field of maternal addiction, coordinating care for pregnant women with SUD, crafting evidence-based policy and procedural guidelines for care delivery and managing the nursing staff and workforce development in both the residential and outpatient settings managing care delivery and developing workforce efficacy and autonomy in both the residential and outpatient program settings for a national and international model for maternal addiction treatment.  This experience meant staying up to date on evidence for best practice in SUD, policy development, and patient advocacy, as well as complex-care populations and supporting frontline professionals.

Jillian Hopewell, MPA, MA has devoted her professional career to health care justice for immigrant populations. Since 1995, Hopewell has worked with Migrant Clinicians Network, the oldest and largest clinical network dedicated to improving health care for underserved migrants. Hopewell directs MCN's California office, serving as the Director of Education and Communication. In this capacity, Hopewell oversees MCN's comprehensive technical assistance program for migrant and community health centers and migrant clinicians. She also directs MCN's continuing education program for clinicians and coordinates all of MCN's clinical publications. She is the editor-in-chief of Streamline, a quarterly peer-reviewed publication that reaches over four thousand clinicians. Additionally, she is responsible for the development and ongoing management of content for MCN's award-winning website. Hopewell is an adjunct faculty member of the Communication Arts & Sciences Department at California State University, Chico.