Spotlight on Success: Patient Partners Help Shape Future Occupational Therapists!

Earlier this year, the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy (OT) piloted an innovative project to bring patient voices directly into OT education through the course OSOT 519: Professional Practice I – Patients as Educators.

The project was developed to offer students who could not be placed in the UBC Health Mentors (HM) Program a meaningful alternative to engage with lived experience. With the OT program expanding, it became essential to provide students with opportunities to hear directly from patients about the realities of navigating the healthcare system, chronic disease management, and working with OTs.

We invited 11 Patient Partners to participate. Each met with a small group of 2–3 OT students, sharing personal experiences that helped students better understand the role of occupational therapy in real-world contexts. Each student selected a different theme from each Patient Partner’s story, conducted additional research, and wrote an academic paper that reflected both the narrative and scholarly perspectives. Later in the term, students reconnected with their Patient Partner to discuss what they learned.

The result? A rich, reflective learning experience—for students and patients alike.  Quotes from our Patient Partners:
“The students had opportunities to inquire, reflect and affirm my narrative both in writing and in person.”

Patient Partners reported that they found the experience rewarding and impactful. Many appreciated the opportunity to influence health professions education and saw clear value in helping shape future practitioners.
“From my perspective, the program was very successful in that it seemed to work for the students, and I got a lot out of it as well.”

This pilot demonstrated the power of patient storytelling and highlighted the importance of making space for lived experience in all healthcare education. We are excited about the potential of this model and are exploring how it might grow to serve more students in the future.

“It was clear that the students highly valued the learning opportunity and were able to be reflective about how the experience contributed to their development as occupational therapists. Many of the students were profoundly impacted by what they learned from the Patient Partners,” says Alexis Davis, Assistant Professor of Teaching.