SWITCH BC’s Community Physician Health and Safety (CPHS) team teaches post-secondary students at BCIT and Langara College how to respond to tough situations in community medical clinics. These sessions give students practical tools and activities to manage challenging patient and public interactions safely and professionally.

“Training is in our name, and this collaboration with post-secondary schools is an exciting step to bring practical skills directly to future workers,” said Victoria Schmid, SWITCH BC CEO. “It helps ensure new health care workers have the skills they need to help physicians, patients, and the system.”

The Medical Office Staff de-escalation tools are the newest addition to the CPHS program. This program is co-developed by Doctors of BC and funded through the Physician Master Agreement. Physicians and Medical Office Staff across the province helped develop these practical tools to support workplace health and safety.

“The de-escalation tools prepare future medical office staff for real work situations. Gaining these skills early sets a foundation that will benefit them for years,” says Dr. Charlene Lui, Doctors of BC President. “We support all efforts to reduce the administrative burden of clinic health and safety programs so physicians can focus more on patient care.”

The CPHS program also includes a web portal where physicians and staff can customize their health and safety programs. They can also request free, voluntary, and confidential clinic assessments from SWITCH BC’s Health and Safety Advisors.

Physicians and medical office staff can access tools and online learning resources on the CPHS web portal in the Violence Prevention section, including:

• Printable posters and resources
• In-person and phone examples of escalating situations and follow-up procedures
• The HEARD+D technique and reference sheets

The training will be offered in November to students in BCIT’s Medical Office Assistant Associate Certificate program and Langara College’s Medical Office Administrator Short Certificate program.

In photo, Emily Chan, SWITCH BC Health and Safety Advisor.