UBC Survey-Rural Community Responses to COVID-19 in BC

RER Survey Engagement Card

​Dear Discovery Islands Chamber of Commerce,

I am writing to you from the Centre for Rural Health Research, within UBC’s Department of Family Practice. You might remember, our team reached out to you in the past to share information about an ongoing research study to understand rural and remote community priorities for health care across British Columbia: the Rural Evidence Review (RER) project. The Rural Evidence Review has funding under Canada’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research and through the Rural Coordination Centre of BC to work with rural citizens to provide high-quality and useful evidence for rural health care planning in BC. To do this, we ask rural citizens about the health care priorities that matter the most to their communities and share what we learn with policy- and decision-makers, and rural communities across the province. The RER is being led by Dr. Jude Kornelsen, Co-Director of the Centre for Rural Health Research and Associate Professor within the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia.

To learn more about the RER and our team, please visit our website at the following links: 

• The RER
• The Research Team

We, as a research centre, prioritize local (“ground up”) solutions to address the health care challenges and priorities confronting rural and remote BC communities. In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, our team in partnership with the BC Rural Health Network has created a brief, anonymous online survey to learn from rural and remote BC communities about their experiences and responses to COVID-19. To date, we have heard from more than 300 people across the province! We will use the findings to understand rural community solutions and resiliency in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings will be shared with rural and remote BC communities to support learning and collaboration across communities. The findings will also be shared with the BC Ministry of Health and the Health Authorities to support rural health care planning.
I have attached an ‘engagement card’ with more information about the survey. The survey can be found here: http://bit.ly/RERCOVID-19. The survey is available on an ongoing basis, with no established end date. We would be most appreciative if you could share information about the COVID-19-focused survey, including the link to access the survey and the attached engagement card, with your community. 
Thank you for your time and your support. 

Sincerely,

The RER Team
Principal Investigator: 
Jude Kornelsen, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Family Practice, University of British Columbia (UBC)
Co-Director, Centre for Rural Health Research
E: jude.kornelsen@familymed.ubc.ca
T: (250) 653-4325
​
Research Coordinator:
Christine Carthew, MPH
Centre for Rural Health Research, Department of Family Practice, UBC
E: christine.carthew@ubc.ca
T: (604) 827-2193