A new online program by the University of Wisconsin Center for Patient Partnerships will offer a unique perspective on what it means to advocate and interact with patients facing serious illnesses with the Consumer Health Advocacy Certificate.
CPP Director Meg Gaines started the center when she returned to work after she was treated for cancer. With her return, she said she realized her job was the same wonderful job she remembered, but that she was a completely different person.
Gaines said her doctors advised her to enjoy the quality and not the quantity of her remaining days. She said she would describe what she learned as “jaw-dropping and whip-lashing.”
With this, Gaines said she wanted to share the skills and knowledge she acquired through her own health battle with other people who needed that information to stay alive or at least feel like they tried everything.
CPP, which offers classes in patient advocacy, decided to offer an online Consumer Health Advocacy Certificate to keep up with the digitally-emerging society and the news ways in which people are learning, according to Kathy O’Connell, CPP director of educational development.
“Geography doesn’t matter anymore,” O’Connell said.
By offering the certificate online, more students can be reached in a variety of places, according to O’Connell. She said with the online classes, more service can be offered to clients around the country with life altering illnesses.
According to Sarah Davis, clinical assistant professor of law and associate director of CPP, people call the center from across the country saying they want to learn how to be an advocate for patients and the skills that come with it.
“The online certificate encourages enhanced faculty, student and patient experiences because they are all cooperating together, creating new knowledge in real time,” O’Connell said.
There are real benefits, O’Connell added, in having students working with clients with life-altering illnesses. She said the resulting relationships and bonds that are formed are unique.
Gaines said she experienced a rebirth as a teacher with the experience of teaching online and her experience changed the dynamic and depth of the teaching and learning environment.
Teaching online can reveal a lot more about a person and can get information out and open for discussion that may be hard to talk about in class, Gaines said.
“It works better because the students have more time to reflect on what they have learned and come back to it at different times,” Davis said.
Society and the way people learn are changing, O’Connell said, so it was a natural move to take the content from a face-to-face interaction and move it to an online environment. She said there are different modalities and technologies present in the 21st century that should be used to help enhance the teaching and learning environment.
This certificate offers students both an inside view of the health care system through patient experience and the practical knowledge and skills of advocacy, according to Davis.
The faculty to student to patient experience, O’Connell added, creates a dynamic, creative, collaborative and engaging learning community.
