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The Rural Site Visits team travels to all Rural Subsidiary Agreement communities in British Columbia to meet with community partners to develop relationships and learn about their successes, innovations and challenges around rural healthcare delivery. The team uses this information to amplify the rural voice to health policymakers and share stories of ingenuity 

5

years of project implementation

146

rural communities visited in British Columbia

412

meetings with local community members

“We’ve been working in silos for so long…a collaborative voice can be much more powerful [when] trying to get the resources you need.” 

Community Member

About Rural Site Visits

Rural British Columbians’ access to healthcare services is often limited by the province’s expansive geography, disparate resources, provider availability and transportation issues. Healthcare in rural, remote and Indigenous communities is often considered innovative and there is much to learn from voices at the grassroots level.

 

The Rural Site Visits project:

 

  • Builds relationships between RCCbc and rural communities across British Columbia 
  • Gives rural community partners, including rural doctors and other healthcare professionals, a voice in informing provincial health policy 
  • Contributes to rural health research in British Columbia  
  • Enables rural community members to share locally grown rural health innovations 

Connect with a Rural Site Visits team member now

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Who visits rural communities

Each team that visits a rural community includes at least one rural doctor or midwife and one RCCbc staff member. They receive training in “appreciative inquiry”, interview techniques and cultural safety, such as San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training. 

 

Urban-based guests, including policymakers, researchers, healthcare workers, administrators and educators, are sometimes invited to join a site visit to learn how health care functions in rural communities.

Preparing for a site visit

Before each visit, the Site Visits team gets to know the communities in advance, such as learning who’s who in the community, respecting cultural protocols, and meeting when the time is right for communities.

Results of the meetings

All community participants who take part in site visit meetings provide consent to be interviewed and recorded. RCCbc then transcribes the recordings and sends them to participants for approval. The Site Visits team then analyzes the information and uses it to inform policy and share stories about rural health innovations.

Building and sustaining relationships

After each visit, it’s not “goodbye”it’ssee you later”. The Site Visits team continues building the relationship with community members by sending resources and helping  them make connections.

Reports by Rural Site Visits

Community feedback reports 

RCCbc provides bi-annual community feedback reports on the project’s progress and shares innovative solutions to health challenges discovered during the visits. Each report is anonymized and encompasses feedback from all rural communities engaged since the beginning of the project. 

 

 

 

Specialized reports 

Various organizations and projects have requested specific information on their population groups to better understand and support their population needs. Each report is anonymized and encompasses feedback from all rural communities engaged since the beginning of the Project. 

 

 

Map of Visited Communities

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