Professionals learning together with patients: An exploratory study of a collaborative learning Fellowship programme for healthcare improvement

ABSTRACT

Improving the quality of healthcare involves collaboration between many different stakeholders. Collaborative learning theory suggests that teaching different professional groups alongside each other may enable them to develop skills in how to collaborate effectively, but there is little literature on how this works in practice. Further, though it is recognised that patients play a fundamental role in quality improvement, there are few examples of where they learn together with professionals. To contribute to addressing this gap, we review a collaborative fellowship in Northwest London, designed to build capacity to improve healthcare, which enabled patients and professionals to learn together. Using the lens of collaborative learning, we conducted an exploratory study of six cohorts of the year long programme (71 participants). Data were collected using open text responses from an online survey (n = 31) and semi-structured interviews (n = 34) and analysed using an inductive open coding approach. The collaborative design of the Fellowship, which included bringing multiple perspectives to discussions of real world problems, was valued by participants who reflected on the safe, egalitarian space created by the programme. Participants (healthcare professionals and patients) found this way of learning initially challenging yet ultimately productive. Despite the pedagogical and practical challenges of developing a collaborative programme, this study indicates that opening up previously restricted learning opportunities as widely as possible, to include patients and carers, is an effective mechanism to develop collaborative skills for quality improvement.

KEYWORDS:

• Evaluation research
• interprofessional education
• collaborative learning
• service improvement
• work-based learning
• patient-centred practice

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge all the individuals who have completed the CLAHRC NWL Improvement Leader Fellowship programme for their enthusiastic participation and help in improving the programme and contributing to this research. The authors would like to thank all those who contributed to teaching and mentoring on the programme, including Ruth Barnes who worked with CLAHRC NWL to establish and deliver the programme in 2010 until 2013. We gratefully acknowledge the help and support of Rachel Matthews, Vimal Sriram, and Meerat Kaur who contributed comments on the article and have been invaluable in supporting patients and patient fellows throughout the programme. We gratefully acknowledge the staff who have supported the running of the fellowship including Hayley Ware (nee Bray, Ronnie Daniel and Lucy Ryan).

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the writing and content of this article. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health.

Funding

This article presents independent research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under the Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) programme for North West London.

Notes

1. We use the term ‘collaborative learning’ rather than ‘interprofessional learning’ throughout (except when referring to specific literature) to reflect working and learning relationships not only between a range of professionals but also patients, carers and members of the public with interests in improving healthcare services.

Additional information

Funding

This article presents independent research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under the Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) programme for North West London.