For over 15 years, Sarb Basra was a social worker and interdisciplinary team member with Fraser Health’s Surrey Kidney Care Centre, supporting patients and families living with kidney disease. She was also an active member of professional groups and BC Renal provincial committees, including chairing the Social Work Professional Practice Council.
Recently, we reconnected with Sarb, who left renal care in 2020 and now works with Fraser Health’s Hospice Palliative Care Consultation Team in White Rock-South Surrey. Here, we share her reflections on her time as a renal social worker and how this valuable experience has helped her:
As a renal social worker from 2005 to 2020, you worked with a wide range of patients and families, all from various backgrounds and walks of life. Can you tell us more about what your role entailed?
My focus was always on the well-being of patients and families from a social work lens – ensuring they had the necessary understanding, support and resources to navigate the continuum of health and kidney disease. I counselled patients and families on disease management, treatment options and decision planning, Advance Care Planning, transplantation, palliative care, and other life and health changes. My responsibilities as a social worker included the provision of biopsychosocial assessments, clinical interventions, advocating for a better understanding of patient and familial contexts, and including culturally responsive care.
That brings us to your work with BC Renal. What projects and initiatives were you involved in, and how did these tie into your experience as a social worker?
I served on a number of Fraser Health and BC Renal committees, co-developing program processes, education and tools – Kidney Care Committee, Palliative Care Committee, Conservative Care Committee, BC Kidney Days Committee, and Social Work Professional Practice Council, which I chaired. My work with the council allowed me to collaborate between provincial renal social workers, the Fraser Health Renal Program, the BC & Yukon Branch of The Kidney Foundation, and BC Renal. I advocated for advancing social worker clinical practice, improving resource gaps, and highlighting patient and family psychosocial needs. I was involved in co-developing the provincial renal social work practice guidelines, Advance Care Planning training, and education materials on mental health, health management, financial and community resources.
How has your work with BC Renal influenced your understanding of and practices as a social worker, and how does this show up in your current position in palliative care?
My experiences in renal strengthened my belief that it is imperative to have interdisciplinary teams through the continuum of health and social systems. Traditionally, our health-care models have been built upon the physical and biological aspects of care; it is only in the last few decades that more people are beginning to appreciate the intricate matrix of psychosocial, spiritual, physical and biological domains. A more holistic model of care is required for optimal well-being.
I have learned so much from patients, families, colleagues and my personal experiences as a South Asian woman. The Serious Illness Conversation training guide, Advance Care Planning, complexities of health and social well-being, navigating the health and social systems, the “What Matters to You?” initiative, cultural diversity, and Indigenous humility care – these all guided me to have such conversations with my mom and family. My mom died from advanced Parkinson’s disease in December 2023 in the hospice where I work; I was with her. This experience changed me as a person and as a professional.
BC Renal gave me invaluable opportunities: to better appreciate patient and family lived experiences, interdisciplinary team and committee work, conference planning, meaningful education delivery, chronic and acute public health, funding considerations, integration of qualitative and quantitative data collection, challenges and benefits of interdisciplinary teams, advancing systems improvement, and so on – all of which I have carried with me into my practice as a hospice and palliative social worker.
Thank you for your contributions over the years and for the insights you shared today! Any last thoughts for our readers?
I strongly believe clinicians who dedicate time to renal regional programs and BC Renal activities carry their knowledge and skills forward to other programs where they continue to improve the service delivery for patients, families, and staff. Reminder: We will also apply such learnings when we help our family members, friends and ourselves as service receivers. – Best wishes to everyone.
Related resources: See the
Health Info section of the BC Renal website. Scroll down and look under the
Kidney Care and
Managing My Care headings.
