How to harness the patient’s voice to make your service effective

Gathering the views of patients is essential if we are to deliver the outcomes patients want. But few clinicians are taught to do this during their training. 

So PCRS is running a two day respiratory clinical leadership programme workshop which will explore how to utilise patient feedback to evaluate a project or service.

The workshop will cover
•    Why the patient’s view matters
•    What factors to consider when designing a survey or data collection exercise
•    The best use of qualitative and quantitative data
•    How to select patients for inclusion
•    When to use different methods of data collection 
•    How to critique a survey based research articles 

Speakers will offer practical examples and tips based on their experience of using patient data to shape their services. 

Guest speaker Dr Gordon Linklater, consultant in palliative medicine, NHS Highland and Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Aberdeen, will discuss how to use the patient’s voice to ensure patient-centred outcomes and Corinne Robinson, a clinical specialist respiratory physiotherapist, will explain how she used patient feedback to evaluate her service in Bristol.

PCRS research lead Dr Helen Ashdown will talk about data collection and analysis and discuss how to evaluate a project and write it up for presentation or publication.

Delegates will also have an opportunity to put the theory into practice by designing their own survey for data collection.

Workshop co-chair, Clare Cook, says: “As health professionals we are now increasingly being asked to gather the patient’s experience to measure the care we are delivering or to make the case that our service is effective and patient focused. But we don't necessarily have the tools to do this.

“We are often very good at collecting patient stories and we usually know how our patients feel about the care we offer but can we actually articulate that as a qualitative or quantitative measure that is reproducible, can be compared over time and with other services and be used for benchmarking?

So this workshop will explain how to accurately collect patient feedback and it will be very accessible for people who have had very little experience of doing this. It will be about having a go and learning from our peers.  There will also be plenty of time for networking with colleagues.”

Utilising patient feedback for service evaluation: patient centred outcomes based care
9-10 November, University of Birmingham