Project team
- Dr Claire McCauley – Lecturer in Health Sciences, School of Nursing
- Mrs Clare McGlone, – Lecturer in Nursing, Course Director Mental Health Nursing
- Mr Paul Corns,– Formally Lecturer in Paramedic Science, incoming Course Director BSc Hons Paramedic Science now Consultant Paramedic for NIAS
- Dr Paula McFadden– Senior Lecturer in Social Work
Aims/Objectives
To develop Structured Digital Personal Stories which could be used to:
- develop shared interprofessional values as a team, underpinned by prioritising and respecting the rights of each person
- facilitate shared learning to increase understanding of professional roles and boundaries and collaborative practice to improve quality of care
- model authentic interprofessional shared learning necessary to navigate changing health and social care environments
- inform clinical decision making and improve person centred care
Final report
Three Structured Digital Personal Stories have been co-developed with our community partners from DEEDs (Dementia Engagement and Empowerment in Derry and Strabane), The Rainbow Project in Belfast and the School of Nursing and Paramedic Peer Group. These narratives focus on dementia, addiction and transgender lived experiences of poor clinical decision making. Digital Personal Stories had been selected as they have been shown to contribute to shared decision-making in healthcare and increase awareness in persons’ health related experiences (Park et el. 2021). Members of each community partner group recorded the co-created stories and collaborated with the team to pick visual images which reflected the content. The Structured Digital Personal Stories were developed through shared planning and inclusive teamwork to ensure that the core values of each professional group are aligned to achieve shared learning.
The Structured Digital Personal Story focusing on dementia has now been embedded into the Dementia Education Programme (DEP) which is delivered in year 1, 2 and 3 of the pre-registration BSC Hons in Adult Nursing. DEP has been developed by Dr Deirdre Harkin to align with the tiered approach to dementia education for health care professionals. Dr Harkin used this ‘Personal Story’ in a session with over 300 Year 2 pre-registration Nursing students who evaluated it very highly outlined in some student quotes below;
“Very emotive and really gets your thinking about how you approach care in your own practice”
“It was a very emotional video and opened my eyes to how people with dementia may be mistreated or ignored”
“Made me think about how important involving the individual living with dementia is.”
“It was very informative, it gave me a perspective from a person being diagnosed with dementia”
“Has helped to show how people living with dementia are still a person and that this must be considered at all times”
These resources have added value by guiding students across professional groups, specifically chosen, to support a person on their journey through health and social care services from ambulatory care, secondary care to home based care. The shared learning gained through this collaborative work will support care decisions being underpinned by the value of the person and care delivered being optimal.
Resource output (format, links and proposed uses)
Now developed, these resources are available to embed into selected modules throughout all four undergraduate programmes. These can then be used to support interprofessional education through collaborative teaching and early exposure to interprofessional decision making and its impact on person centred practice.
Aligned to CAIPE (2016), these resources will facilitate students to ‘learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care and services’. These resources will not only be shared within schools but across Faculty. It will be disseminated using mediums available to all collaborators such as CHERP, other Universities and clinical colleagues.
Additionally, the equipment purchased with the funding is now widely available within the School for further Structured Digital Personal Stories to be co-developed and recorded in response to the learning needs of our students. Further work would then be conducted to adapt to post graduate programmes within each school.