Become a patient and family advisor
What is a patient and family advisor?
A patient and family advisor is someone who:
- Wants to help improve the quality of our hospitals’ care for all patients and their family members.
- Gives feedback based on his or her own experiences as a patient or family member.
- Helps us plan changes to improve how we take care of our patients.
- Works with our staff on a variety of short- or long-term projects.
- Volunteers his or her time (usually at least one hour and not more than four hours per month).
Patient and family advisors provide a crucial voice that represents all patients and families of patients who receive care at UT Health East Texas.
They partner with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, administrators and other caregivers to help improve the quality of our care for all patients and family members.
Why should you become a patient and family advisor?
When you or your family member was in the hospital, did you think there were things we could have done better?
Do you have ideas about how to make sure other patients and families get the best care possible?
At UT Health East Texas, patient and family advisors give valuable feedback and ideas to help us improve the quality and safety of care we provide.
Who can be a patient and family advisor?
You can be an advisor if you or a family member received care at one of the UT Health East Texas facilities in the past five years.
You don’t need any special qualification to be an advisor.
The most important aspect is your experience as a patient or family member. We will provide you with any other training needed.
What do patient and family advisors do?
If you are an advisor for one of our hospitals, you can help in the following ways:
- Share your story. Advisors help by talking about their healthcare experiences with clinicians, staff and other patients.
- Participate in discussion groups. Advisors provide unique perspective about what it is like to be a patient at one of our hospitals and what we can do to improve the experience.
- Help with educational or informational materials. Advisors help review or create materials like forms, health information handouts and discharge instructions. Advisors help make these materials easier for patients and family members to understand and use.
- Work on short-term projects. We sometimes ask advisors to partner with us in making improvements to the patient experience.
- Serve on a Patient and Family Advisory Council. An advisory council discusses and plans changes to improve hospital quality and safety. Members include patients, family members and hospital staff.
Is being a patient and family advisor right for you?
Being a patient and family advisor may be a good match with your skills and experiences if you can:
- Speak up to share suggestions and potential solutions to help improve hospital care for others.
- Talk about your experiences as a patient or family member, but also think beyond your own experiences.
- Talk about both positive and negative care experiences and share your thoughts on what went well and how things could have been done differently.
- Work with people who may be different from you.
- Listen to and think about what others say, even when you disagree.
- Bring a positive attitude to discussions.
- Keep any information you may hear as an advisor private and confidential.
Find out how to get involved.
For more information about becoming an advisor at UT Health East Texas or to apply, email PFAC@uthet.com.
Join us today! Together we can work to make UT Health East Texas the best it can be.