Involvement in nursing education

Service User and Carer Involvement in the School of Nursing at the University of Nottingham

Self Help Nottingham has worked in partnership with the School of Nursing over a number of years. One of the joint activities has been the role of the User Involvement Development Worker, Joan Cook. Joan is employed by Self Help Nottingham, funded by the School of Nursing, and reports to a steering group with members from both organizations. Her role is to develop and support user and carer involvement in the activities of the School of Nursing.

Examples of service user and carer involvement with the School of Nursing:

Developing the School Strategy:

Service users, carers and voluntary organisations contributed to development of the 2001 School Strategy 'Towards 2012', which established the commitment to develop service user and carer involvement in all areas of work. The Service User and Carer Advisory Group is now developing strategy and more detailed guidelines for this involvement. Members are service users and carers with experience of a range of health services, and staff with experience of involving patients, service users and carers in their work.

Influencing what nurses learn:

Consultation about what different nursing courses should cover includes, service user, carer, parent and voluntary sector representatives working with health and social care professionals as members of Advisory Groups for some courses, a series of focus group exercises informing review of the Diploma in Nursing course in 2004-5, and commissioning a report on mental health nursing curricula from service user group Making Waves in 2003-4.

Teaching and speaking to students:

Many courses include regular and occasional sessions where service users, carers or parents teach or speak to students. Trainees from 'training for trainers' courses run by the School regularly lead sessions on a variety of mental health topics, including sessions using song, poetry and drama, and commissioned from groups led by service users. During their work placements students spend time with and learn from service users, patients, families and carers.

Other forms of involvement:

Service users teaching on some mental health courses are involved in assessing students' presentations, and adults with learning disabilities contribute to auditing some practice placements. Service user group Making Waves is working with the School of Nursing to research the impact of teaching sessions developed and led by service users, and School of Nursing staff research work includes projects where service users and carers are involved in various ways.

The School of Nursing at the University of Nottingham

The School's headquarters are in the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham, with education centres at Boston & Grantham, Derby, Mansfield, Lincoln, and other sites in Nottingham. For more information about the School of Nursing, visit the website at www.nottingham.ac.uk/nursing

Changing roles of Nurses, and the role of Patient and Public Involvement

As well as keeping up with new knowledge and with changes in the NHS, nurses are now taking up more and more different roles. This often includes taking the lead in developing new community health services, where public involvement is crucial to ensure these are appropriate. We believe that involvement of service users and carers in nursing education students learn to treat people as individuals alongside acting on broader medical evidence, to recognize the value of patient and carer experience, and to be well prepared to work in a world where patient & public involvement is normal part of how health services are run.

Would you like to get involved?

There are a number of ways in which you could get involved with our work at the School of Nursing - click on the following link to request further details.

email Self Help Nottingham

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