Health Mentors: Cohort 12 Mentors Recognized at Annual Meeting!

The Annual Health Mentors Support Meeting was held on February 1, 2024 at Vancouver General Hospital. The meeting allowed current and past health mentors an opportunity to connect with each other to share experiences. Dr. Christie Newton, Associate Vice President UBC Health, attended the meeting to personally thank mentors for volunteering and present certificates to recognize the valued contribution of our 2022-23 mentors.

“The program makes such a difference to the students that participate. When I am working with a medical student in clinic I can tell if they have been part of the program. They engage with patients differently and take a more holistic person-centred approach. They think of things like transportation and costs, accessibility and family or caregiver inclusion, as examples. Perhaps an ambitious goal; however, I hope eventually all health professional students will have this opportunity,” said Christie.

Susana Leon, a graduate student working on her Master of Business Administration at Royal Roads University, also attended to introduce her research project to identify strategies to improve patient engagement at UBC. Susana will be surveying and interviewing Health Mentors and other patient volunteers in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Faculty supervisors also spoke about the benefits of the HM program to their students including the advantages of learning about team-based care from patient and caregiver perspectives. Read faculty selected quotes from students’ journals in the meeting report.