ABSTRACT
The involvement of service users in the education of health workers is seen as an important component within the curriculum. It is thought to facilitate the students into developing a deeper understanding around the real lives of their patients, and therefore ensuring their care is more person centred. The subject area focused upon was developing students' awareness of the needs of people with a learning disability. Recent incidents in the press have highlighted examples of poor quality care and a lack of understanding by health and social care professionals in regard to their needs. This article highlights a number of key issues which must be considered when involving service users, namely consent, ethical practice and collaboration. This article will describe the participation of service users in the development of reusable learning objects (RLO's) and make recommendations on the optimum way to undertake such an activity. From this process a framework has been developed, described as the ROOT to success. The ROOT element of the structure relates to Relationship, Organization, Outcome and Team.
Subject(s)
Cooperative Behavior , Drama , Education, Nursing/methods , Learning Disabilities/nursing , Patient Participation , Humans , Learning , Nursing Education Research , Nursing Evaluation Research , Nursing Methodology Research , Students, Nursing/psychologyABSTRACT
Interprofessional learning is seen as increasingly important for all health and social care workers. How this is integrated into the education of these workers is less clear and more of a challenge. This article describes an online learning activity used to facilitate interprofessional learning in a Faculty of Health and Social Care in the UK. An online conference was used to bring students together, utilising a real life case scenario based around a family within a virtual town. Students from a variety of programmes and professional groups participated in an asynchronous discussion forum. The student evaluation of this event was, on the whole, positive and suggests further development of such an approach would address some of the challenges of interprofessional learning.
