Service User Involvement Strategy

Service User involvement in health care is widely supported at a national level both through the NHS plan and the Department of Health’s Patient and Public Involvement agenda. The relevance of service user involvement within the education of health professionals is therefore clear and explicit.  

The plan for greater service user involvement within SHHS has been developed by members of the Service User Reference Group (SURG) and the Service User Management Group (SUMG).

The selected approaches have been shaped by previous research which has shown that past service user involvement in nurse education has had positive effects on student outcomes (Rush 2008, Khoo et al 2004,Wood and Wilson Barnett 1999 . Thus service users are valued as a beneficial resource that can provide unique expertise and knowledge which complements the professional and scientific knowledge provided within existing educational curricula.  

Scope of Service User Involvement

Service User Involvement is encouraged across a range of areas including:-  

  • Recruitment and selection of students

  • Practice and simulated learning activities

  • Assessment of learning

  • Curriculum design and delivery

  • Development of staff

  • Co-ordination and implementation of service user involvement strategy.  

Accessing Service Users  

A database of service users who are willing to be involved across a range of educational activities within SHHS  can be accessed by academic and administrative staff to source information about those service users who are best placed to support specific educational activities.  

Guidance for staff and service users

A set of guidance notes for use both by academic staff and service users have been developed by the Service User Reference Group to support involvement activities. These have been designed specifically to outline the necessary preparation which needs to be undertaken prior to any involvement activities.    

Events  

To meet the need for ongoing recruitment of service users, a Service User Involvement Information Event is being planned for April 2010. More details to be posted later.

References

Khoo R, McVicar A, Brandon D ( 2004) Service user involvement in postgraduate mental health education. Does it benefit practice? Journal of Mental Health. 13 ( 5) pp 481-49 Rush B ( 2008) Mental Health Service user involvement in  nurse education: a catalyst for transformative learning. Journal of Mental Health. 17 ( 5) 531-542 Wood J , Wilson Barnett J ( 1999) The influence of user involvement on the learning of mental health nursing students. NT Research . 4 ( 4) 257- 270.