Experiences of patients and caregivers during their health journeys have become a powerful tool for student learning at UBC. 

Developed by UBC Health’s Patient and Community Partnership for Education (PCPE), the Living Library is a collection of short video vignettes of patients and caregivers talking about their healthcare experiences. The videos illustrate how vital topics such as patient-centered care, ethics, professionalism, communication, palliative and end-of-life care, and stigma are to the learning of health professional students. 

The videos make patient stories accessible to large numbers of students and give people who have barriers to in-person participation a platform to share their experiences with students.

PCPE partnered with many patients, caregivers, and community organizations to produce the videos. Most recently, the team collaborated with Justice for Girls on a video of three friends discussing intersectional experiences of black and Indigenous girls with healthcare.

There are 19 videos in the collection, with new videos planned for gender-based violence, substance use, and medical assistance in dying. They are catalogued for easy searching by high priority health issues, such as chronic disease, communication, end-of-life, health advocacy, healthcare teams, and stigma.

In the 2020-21 academic year, the Living Library was part of coursework for 400 students in audiology, medicine, pharmacy, and psychology.

“The videos make patient stories accessible to large numbers of students and give people who have barriers to in-person participation a platform to share their experiences with students,” says Cathy Kline, Research Coordinator for PCPE at UBC Health.

The Living Library is available to UBC faculty, staff, and students for teaching and learning. It can be accessed through UBC’s learning management system, Canvas, using a campus-wide login (CWL).

View the video catalogue and enroll in the Living Library course on Canvas to watch the videos.

Posted September 8, 2021