Rick Sawatzky is Professor of Nursing at Trinity Western University in Canada and Canada Research Chair in Equitable People-Centred Health Measurement. He is also an affiliated professor at the Institute of Health and Care Sciences at the University of Gothenburg and scientific advisor to the Centre for Person-Centred Care, GPCC.
For him, the collaboration with researchers in Gothenburg has primarily been about developing shared perspectives on person-centred care and how it can be understood, implemented and evaluated.
“International exchange is essential for advancing research on person-centred care and for developing a more global and shared understanding,” he says.
Over the years, the collaboration has included joint research projects, doctoral supervision, courses and workshops. A recurring theme has been how person-centred care can be evaluated in ways that take account of people’s differing circumstances and experiences.
Measuring people’s lived experiences
Rick Sawatzky’s research focuses on how people experience their health, their care and their wellbeing. A central part of his work involves developing methods that capture people’s own perspectives, including self-reported health, experiences of care and quality of life.
“Person-centred care is fundamentally about understanding how people experience their health and their care. That requires methods that go beyond surface-level indicators.”
He describes his role in several collaborations with the University of Gothenburg as primarily methodological and evaluative. This includes both the design of studies and the development of measures and analytical approaches that can help researchers better understand what person-centred care means in practice.
Person-centred care must take difference into account
According to Rick Sawatzky, health research has often been based on the assumption that groups of people are relatively homogeneous. While that may provide a useful starting point, he argues that it is not enough to understand how care works for different individuals.
“One of the most important questions going forward is: what works for whom and under what circumstances? Person-centred care does not look the same for different people, healthcare professionals or contexts.”
He argues that cultural norms, personality, living conditions and healthcare systems all influence how person-centred care is understood and implemented. Research therefore needs to move towards more equitable and context-sensitive ways of evaluating care.
“We know that people are not homogeneous groups. Cultural norms, personality and the organisation of healthcare systems all shape how person-centred care is understood and implemented.”
Advice for early-career researchers: seek out other perspectives
This perspective also shapes his advice to doctoral students and researchers at the beginning of their careers. Rick Sawatzky encourages early-career researchers to actively seek out environments and collaborations that challenge their own assumptions.
“It is risky to become locked into a single way of thinking about how research should be conducted. If we genuinely want to contribute to knowledge development, we need to learn from different methodologies and different ways of understanding the world.”
He particularly emphasises the importance of international and interdisciplinary collaborations. Researchers do not always need to agree, he says. On the contrary, knowledge often develops when different perspectives meet with the aim of learning from one another rather than persuading one another.
“We naturally seek out people who think like we do. But if we want to advance knowledge, we need to consciously step outside our social and intellectual bubbles.”
A collaboration that changed the direction of his research
Looking back, Rick Sawatzky describes the collaboration with GPCC and the University of Gothenburg as pivotal to his own research development.
“This collaboration changed the direction of my research career. It has been a central part of how our research has evolved and an invaluable opportunity to learn from one another.”
His ongoing work explores how care can be measured and understood in ways that better reflect people’s different experiences and life circumstances. According to Rick Sawatzky, that is essential if person-centred care is to work for everyone.onom, en avgörande framtidsfråga.
