Enhancing patient safety amongst CALD consumers
For the CanEngage project, we co-design patient engagement strategies to address safety issues for and with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) cancer service consumers.
Project sponsors: Cancer Australia (CA-ITA-1819-01) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas (APP1180925) grants
About the project
Effectively engaging patients in their care is internationally recognised as a strategy to enhance patient safety.
Many strategies have been developed to enhance patient engagement specifically in relation to their safety, which include questioning, challenging health professionals and encouraging patient reports of errors in their care. Existing strategies are often not suitable for CALD consumers but no strategies have been developed to date specifically for (and with) CALD consumers to enhance their safety.
Project goals
This project aims to enhance patient safety amongst CALD consumers in Australian cancer services through the development and validation of co-designed patient engagement practices.
Design and method
The research comprises a mixed method design and demonstrates a core value of consumer engagement.
This project synthesises document review, observational, interview and documentary data to gain an in-depth understanding of:
- CALD consumers’ use of cancer services
- the patient safety threats
- opportunities for enhanced engagement.
We then workshop initial findings with system and service stakeholders, including consumers, and use this information to co-design strategies in six cancer services.
The co-design process brings together health professionals, consumers and bilingual fieldworkers to develop the project. This leads to multiple patient engagement strategies for patient safety that are tailored to the diverse CALD populations within each service. We will also collect feasibility and efficacy data about the strategies.
We also develop a set of principles to guide the development of patient engagement strategies for patient safety for use with CALD consumers nationally.
The outcome of this project is significant improvement in the way cancer services engage with CALD consumers with regard to their safety, thereby minimising healthcare-associated harm.
Project lead: Professor Reema Harrison
Other members and collaborators
- Doctor Melvin Chin – Prince of Wales Hospital, SESLHD
- Dr Helen Crowther
- Professor Afaf Girgis – University of New South Wales
- Kathryn Joseph – Deakin University
- Monika Latanik
- Dr Desiree Leone
- Professor Elizabeth Manias – Deakin University
- Dr Meron Pitcher
- Nyan Tieu
- Associate Professor Holly Seale – University of New South Wales
- Doctor Allan Smith – Ingham Institute of Applied Medical Research
- Professor Merrilyn Walton – University of Sydney
- Professor Carlene Wilson – La Trobe University
- Austin Health
- Canteen
- South-East Sydney LHD
- South-West Sydney LHD
- Western Health
- Western Sydney LHD