What do you do if your patient advocacy feedback and evaluation process is ineffective?

1 Assess your current process

The first step to improve your feedback and evaluation process is to assess your current situation. What are the goals and objectives of your patient advocacy work? What are the indicators and measures that you use to track your progress and results? How do you collect, store, analyze, and report feedback and evaluation data? How do you use the data to inform your decisions and actions? How do you communicate the data to your clients, stakeholders, and partners? How do you ensure the quality, validity, and reliability of the data? By answering these questions, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of your current process and pinpoint the areas that need improvement.

2 Involve your clients, stakeholders, and partners

The second step to improve your feedback and evaluation process is to involve your clients, stakeholders, and partners in the design, implementation, and review of the process. Your clients are the people who benefit from your patient advocacy services, such as patients, families, caregivers, and communities. Your stakeholders are the people who have an interest or influence in your patient advocacy work, such as healthcare providers, policymakers, funders, and regulators. Your partners are the people who collaborate with you in your patient advocacy work, such as other advocates, organizations, networks, and coalitions. By involving them in your feedback and evaluation process, you can ensure that the process is relevant, responsive, and respectful of their needs, expectations, and perspectives. You can also gain their trust, support, and feedback to enhance your credibility, accountability, and learning.

3 Use multiple methods and sources

The third step to improve your feedback and evaluation process is to use multiple methods and sources to collect, analyze, and report feedback and evaluation data. Depending on your goals and objectives, you can use quantitative methods (such as surveys, questionnaires, tests, and statistics) or qualitative methods (such as interviews, focus groups, observations, and stories) or a combination of both to gather feedback and evaluation data. You can also use different sources of data, such as your own records, documents, and reports; your clients' experiences, opinions, and testimonials; your stakeholders' feedback, reviews, and assessments; and your partners' inputs, insights, and recommendations. By using multiple methods and sources, you can increase the richness, diversity, and validity of your feedback and evaluation data and reduce the biases, errors, and gaps that may affect your data quality.

4 Analyze and report your data effectively

The fourth step to improve your feedback and evaluation process is to analyze and report your data effectively. Analysis involves organizing, summarizing, interpreting, and presenting the data in a meaningful way. Reporting entails communicating the data to clients, stakeholders, and partners through appropriate formats, channels, and languages. To do this effectively, you should use clear and consistent definitions, categories, and codes for your data. You should also use appropriate tools and techniques such as software, charts, graphs, tables, descriptive and inferential statistics (e.g., mean, median, mode), thematic and narrative analysis to identify patterns or themes in the data. Additionally, you should use visual and verbal aids to illustrate or highlight your data (e.g., images, icons, colors). Furthermore, it is important to use simple and concise language when explaining or discussing your data while avoiding jargon or technical terms. Finally, you can also use feedback and evaluation frameworks or models (e.g., logic models) to guide and structure your analysis and reporting.

5 Use your data to improve your practice

The fifth step to improve your feedback and evaluation process is to use your data to improve your practice. Data should be used to make informed decisions and actions, such as identifying gaps in patient advocacy work, adjusting strategies for changing needs, developing action plans for improvement, sharing findings with clients and stakeholders, and celebrating successes. Doing so will increase transparency, accountability, recognition, appreciation, and motivation.

6 Review and refine your process regularly

The sixth step to improve your feedback and evaluation process is to review and refine it regularly. Feedback and evaluation is an ongoing cycle of learning and improvement, so as a patient advocate, you need to monitor and evaluate your process often to ensure its effectiveness, efficiency, and ethicality. You can use various tools and techniques to review and refine your process, such as conducting self-assessments or peer-assessments, seeking external reviews or audits, applying feedback and evaluation standards or principles, participating in feedback and evaluation training or education, and joining feedback and evaluation networks or communities. By doing so, you can exchange feedback and evaluation experiences with other patient advocates.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?