Patient participation in life-long learning as a two-way street

Lessons learned on our mission to person-centred education actively involving patients.

Saturday, 7 October, 12:00

• Sjim Romme
  MSc.  Maastricht University (Care and Public Health Research Institute)
  Co-founder of the Patient As a Person Foundation (Dutch: Stichting Mens Achter de Patiënt)
• Matthijs Bosveld
  MSc. MD.,  Maastricht University (Care and Public Health Research Institute)
  Co-founder of the Patient As a Person Foundation (Dutch: Stichting Mens Achter de Patiënt)

Understanding the patient as a person is vital in delivering person-centered care. As students of medicine and health sciences respectively, Matthijs and Sjim noticed a hiatus in their education: the patient’s perspective only appeared on paper. Neither did they learn about the impact of disease on their physical, mental, and social wellbeing from patients, nor did patients educate them on their preferences relating to health care delivery. In 2017, Matthijs and Sjim founded the Patient As a Person Foundation (Dutch: Stichting Mens Achter de Patiënt) with the aim of empowering patients to fulfil a prominent role in all health professions. In their presentation, Matthijs and Sjim will elaborate on how patients can be involved in health professions education as equal partners, and how patients themselves can benefit from their participation. Lastly, Matthijs and Sjim will showcase how the Patient As a Person Foundation aims to prepare patients not only for participation in health professions education but also for participation in client counsels, as partners in designing care pathways, and even as advisory panel in reimbursement discussions in health care. With their contribution, they aim inspire how to walk the talk of patient participation and realize a two-way street in which participating patients benefit and the person-centeredness of care improves.