Guest Speaker Series: Future of Healthcare Post Pandemic

UBC MEL MHLP - Guest Speaker 2021 - Jacqueline Per

On June 1^st, Jacqueline Per, Executive Director Patient Experience, Chief Nursing and Allied Health Officer Fraser Health, spoke with the MHLP cohort about the future of healthcare and the lessons learnt from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Jacqueline Per provides strategic leadership and clinical practice oversight as Chief Nursing and Allied Health Officer and interim Executive Director, Knowledge and Practice at Fraser Health. Prior to the focus on COVID-19, Jaqueline Per, as Executive Director Patient Experience, led large scale change within the professional practice department at Fraser Health. As well as, building a strong focus on the patient experience and engagement of patients and families throughout our community. Per brings 30 years of healthcare and leadership experience to her portfolio.

She is passionate in her commitment to placing the patient at the center of her work and in collaborating with employees, physicians, volunteers, and students to create and support the structures that empower teams to deliver high quality care every day.

During Per’s presentation to MHLP students, she focused on the potential opportunities and considerations learned from the pandemic and from this, what were the takeaways that can be understood for the future of health care. Additionally, Per provided valuable insight into industry adaptation and growth.

Within the session, Per asked the MHLP cohort to consider how the health care industry can ensure strategies, innovations, and wisdom utilized during the pandemic are not lost, and are in fact re-enforced going forward. Reflecting upon the last year’s innovations is what will help to increase efficacy and build foundations for the future.

Per’s discussions with the MHLP cohort posed the question to the group of what policies and procedures were tested, stretched or compromised during the COVID-19 pandemic?

What adaptations, new systems and mechanisms were tested during this time? And how can these now utilized, given that the health care industry has demonstrated the policies are still holding up in the face adversity? What is the mechanism determining which policies remain in place will be the task for the future MHLP graduates?

With a plethora of new data and approaches from research and experience in the COVID-19 pandemic, Per considers whether, on a macro level, if there is an opportunity for provincial health care systems to share information nationally and learn from each other.

For the MHLP cohort, access to data and resources could greatly impact their role progression, as communication and knowledge sharing could take on new paths to improve patient care country wide.

Information distribution has become a widespread conversation, whether it be government directives or important information about COVID-19 practices. On a micro level, what is the most effective method to share information with the frontline staff?

Per noted that many frontline staff get their information from social media, their colleagues, various communication apps, which impacts the way information is distributed to their networks. That in turn, can then impact quality of care for patients.

Reflecting on the role of nurses, Per raised questions about there if is an opportunity for the health care system to broaden nurses’ scope of practice, such as the areas where nurses’ roles can be expanded to allow them to do more for their patients.

This gave the MHLP students the opportunity to consider their backgrounds and reflect upon how they, as future leaders, would endeavour to restructure positions and capabilities within the system.

Finally, Per asked the group what are the opportunities within their future roles, to revisit privacy concerns and enable the patient and their families to utilize technology that allows for greater connectivity between both?

Per highlighted that before the pandemic, the health care system would have not allowed for the use of that technology due to patient privacy concerns. Considering the patient and family isolation component of the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing privacy concerns while exercising care for isolated patients and families will require innovative thinking.

Jacqueline Per’s presentation allowed for an open discussion between herself and the students, where the group not only were able to ask about Per’s insights regarding the pandemic, but it also allowed for attendees to share their own thoughts on what has or has not worked for them in their own health care roles.

Jacqueline was also very receptive to any ideas that attendees had for areas of improvement, illustrating the desire for extensive collaborative networks.

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