Thank you to BC SUPPORT Unit Interior Centre & Interior Health

sign with the words BC Support Unit, Advancing Patient-Oriented Research, Interior Centre, Interior Health

Partners in Leadership Education

The School of Leadership Studies wishes to thank the BC SUPPORT Unit Interior Centre and Interior Health for their engagement as our 2020-Health Leadership Challenge™ sponsoring organization.

The purpose of the Leadership Challenge™ is to create a mutually beneficial learning experience for a local organization and graduate students in the first year of their Master of Arts in Leadership - Health Specialization. To create this learning experience, an inquiry with an organizational sponsor is necessary and we are grateful to Leslie Bryant, Regional Practice Lead, Research, Knowledge Translation and Indigenous Engagement and Anni Rychtera, Patient Partner for their generous commitments of time and energy. Thank you for thoughtfulness and meaningful engagement! 

The BC SUPPORT (Support for People and Patient-Oriented Research and Trials) Unit is part of a national program to help health care research be more relevant and meaningful to patients and inform the best possible health care. The BC SUPPORT Unit Interior Centre is the go-to place for stakeholders within the geographic area served by Interior Health. Students in the MA Leadership 2020 Health cohort were specifically seeking how to accelerate a culture shift towards patient engagement in health care research.

In response to participating in the event, Leslie shared:

I’m energized and inspired by the passion and quality of the responses we received from the challenge. I’m looking forward to incorporating much of the work into our work plan for 2021, particularly the development of key messages and strengthening the network within Interior Health to support applied research and knowledge translation that is patient engaged.

Further, Anni offered the following reflections:

As a Patient Partner actively engaged in Patient-oriented research since the beginning, it is great to see research in action! Your students did an amazing amount of work within the short period of time and the quality of the work presented was very impressive. It was a great experience to participate in the Leadership Challenge™! Seeing the work your students presented gives hope that we can further extend Patient and Public Engagement in Health Research and prove the impact this has on the outcomes.

The Leadership Challenge™ is a cornerstone of the first residency of the Master of Arts in Leadership – Health Specialization program. For more information or to inquire about becoming a potential sponsor, please contact us.