Roy Stanley

Roy Stanley, an advanced care paramedic in Kelowna, is an unwavering advocate for patient safety and improving all aspects of patients’ experiences. He is a mentor and leader in the paramedic community, where he challenges the status quo and encourages his colleagues to step up and take action.

For example, Roy identified that patient safety events needed to be reported to improve the care they provide, but that paramedics often did not feel safe nor feel it was worth the time to report patient safety events. From his own experience as a paramedic, Roy knew that if safety events were not reported and reviewed, patients could be at risk of an unsafe environment and staff would miss crucial learning opportunities. When he had not received feedback on any of his reports, Roy sought out a response himself. His supervisors were impressed with his initiative and Roy soon took the lead to promote and increase reporting of PSLS events and ensure timely feedback to all reporters.

In addition, Roy noticed that no paramedics were involved in the safety review process, so he asked for them to have a say in how they report safety issues. This was the first step toward helping paramedics feel that they are agents of change in their own workplace. Now, Roy brainstorms with his colleagues when they report events so they can find the best solution possible for preventing adverse events from happening again. This was just the beginning of Roy’s advocacy work.

As he became more involved in patient safety, Roy designed a communication and awareness campaign. He worked tirelessly to visit paramedic stations to raise awareness and spread the word through social media about changes to patient safety protocols. From there, he created methods to test the effectiveness of specific interventions to increase reporting and made sure all staff members now receive feedback after an incident review. To top it all off, he noticed a pattern with adverse safety events and specific types of medications, so he began to advocate for more appropriate and stable medications for patients who need them.

Roy knows that safety comes first, and he has gone above and beyond as a paramedic to make a difference for his colleagues, BC Emergency Health Services, and many patients in the province. This is why, as his nominator puts it, he “exemplifies the characteristics of an Everyday Champion.”