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Implementing Lived Experience Workshops in Regional Areas of British Columbia to Enhance Clinicians’ Confidence in Spinal Cord Injury Care: An Evaluation
Hannah Prins, Scott Donia, Shannon Rockall, James Hektner, Spring Hawes, James J. Laskin ,John Chernesky and Vanessa K. Noonan
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12070731
Abstract
In British Columbia (BC), there are challenges accessing specialized spinal cord injury care and resources. This paper evaluated the impact of spinal cord injury health educational workshops delivered in regional communities that were informed by persons with lived experience. A community survey was conducted with 44 persons with lived experience in a BC region to identify priority SCI health-related topics. Twenty-five topics were ranked from 1–14, with bowel and bladder management ranked 1 and 4, sexual health ranked 5, and pressure injuries ranked 7. Clinical perspectives on the priorities were collected from 102 clinicians in the BC region, who independently ranked 14 of these SCI topics and considered the former 4 topics to be lower clinical priority (ranked 11–14). These priorities informed a series of SCI clinical education workshops held at healthcare facilities in three regional cities. The goals were to improve clinicians’ knowledge and confidence levels when managing spinal cord injury health and to facilitate person-centred care. Positive feedback demonstrated that educational workshops supported by lived experience perspectives effectively enhanced the clinicians’ understanding of spinal cord injury and their priorities. Future plans include engaging more administrators as part of this initiative and conducting workshops in other regions of BC.
Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the helpful assistance of Accessible Okanagan with distributing the PLEX priority questionnaire, the clinical staff for their eagerness to learn, and the PLEX speakers at the workshops, whose experience, openness, and passion were essential to the success of the workshops and will lead to the improvement of care for PLEX in the future.
This study was supported by the Province of British Columbia, Grant No: 2023YRDA45.