PFAB-driven clinical and patient education

ABSTRACT

Objective: We sought to study how an adult cystic fibrosis (CF) Patient Family Advisory Board (PFAB) can influence and co-produce patient and staff education in collaboration with their CF care team. Novel approaches in this study are 1) learner needs analyses were driven by the PFAB, 2) study and abstract were created by patient PFAB member. Background: In addition to improving quality of care, patient safety, satisfaction, and engagement, the Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care (IPFCC) recommends the establishment of a PFAB to design patient-centric initiatives such as quality improvement, patient education, as well as healthcare provider and clinical staff education (Johnson, Abraham. 2012). Despite this recommendation, there are few studies on how patientdriven education is designed or implemented. The INOVA Adult CF Clinic PFAB articulated their perspective of clinical staff learner needs for Respiratory Therapy (RT), Emergency Department (ED), and Inpatient Nursing Teams (APU). They also helped to advise the need for and content of educational COVID-19 webinars to the patient population. Patients who were PFAB members provided educational content and the patient perspective in these workshops. Methods: Thematic analysis of educational sessions and PFAB meetings were used to study how PFABs can influence and co-produce clinical staff and patient education. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed from observation of 7 PFAB meetings and digital collaborative planning documents used by the PFAB to discuss patient-driven educational needs and session plans. Observational data were collected from 3 staff education sessions that were co-presented with a CF care team member and CF patient PFAB member who gave a short personal account of their experience with their disease. These included one RT session, two inpatient nursing staff sessions. Plans were made for an ED session in August. Observational qualitative data was also collected from two COVID-19 webinars that were conducted with input and participation of the PFAB in sharing experiences and presenting content. Results: Thematic analysis showed that PFABs can increase engagement of clinical staff and augment educational opportunities for both patients and staff by addressing patient-centered learning needs. Patients who provided first-person accounts of their lived experience as part of a learning session promoted empathy and engagement amongst both staff and patients. Co-produced COVID webinars resulted in a 250% increase in attendance over a three-month period. Chat-box and verbal question participation of co-produced COVID webinars also increased. In addition, the PFAB-driven educational initiatives promoted psychological ownership (Avey, et al. 2009) within the PFAB itself. This has led to attitudes such as higher commitment, responsibility, and engagement of patient PFAB members and CF clinical staff. Opportunities for further research in this area include exploring the extent to which these themes are also promoted by administering formal pre- and post-intervention assessments to staff learners as well as PFAB members.