School of Health Sciences Community Engagement Seminar
Seeing Through the Patient’s Eyes – Increasing Patient
Involvement in Optometry
The School of Health Sciences at City University London would like to invite you to attend our next Community Engagement Seminar.
Date: Wednesday 24 June 2015
Time: 2.30-3.00pm
Venue: Room A226, College Building, City University London
This seminar will be led by Dr Ahalya Subramanian, Lecturer, in the Division of Optometry and Visual Sciences.
Ahalya Subramanian will explore how the Division of Optometry has involved patients in the development of the visual impairment curriculum and teaching on the module.
What do patients want Optometry students to know about visual impairment?
Why should we involve patients in curriculum development?
What are the benefits of involving patients in teaching about the impact of visual impairment?
For more information please visit www.city.ac.uk/health
School of Health Sciences Community Engagement Seminar
‘My Experiences in the Big Chair’: Service User Experiences of Common Eye Diseases
The School of Health Sciences at City University London would like to invite you to attend our next Community Engagement Seminar.
Date: Wednesday 24 June 2015
Time: 2pm-2.30pm
Location: Room A226, College Building, City University London
The seminar will be led by Dr Byki Huntjens, Optometrists and Lecturer in the Division of Optometry and Visual Sciences. She is involved in teaching multiple clinical modules and co-facilitates the contact lens teaching for undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Dr Byki Huntjens has introduced a new series of tutorials designed for UG and PG optometry programme, whereby service users with common eye diseases discuss their everyday experience of the disease, their experiences of the national screening services, and any treatment received.
Online eye examination tutorials including short interviews with the service users were prepared, and on separate occasions the service users supported dialogues with small groups of students regarding their everyday experiences coping with the disease.
‘By introducting the service user perspective to undergraduate optometry students, I envisage that the improved understanding of the patient perspective will translate into enhanced communication skills and optometric management when students progress to the professional eye clinics in their final year of study.’
During the lecture, Dr Byki Huntjens will address her experiences in recruitment of service users, filming and editing, and organizing the ‘Meet the Experts’ events for the students. Additionally, she will present the feedback results, and discuss future work to this series.
For more information please visit www.city.ac.uk/health
Working with service users in the education of students who are studying to go into the health and social care sector is a well-established method of training. It is also considered that this is a valuable practice for service users, helping them gain confidence, social skills and improving their communication with others.
This event will present the finding of research looking at the results of service users’ experience of working with students who are training to go into the health and social care sector.
Join us on the 28th January 2015 for an engaging discussion around this topic.
“(Almost) Everything you need to know about identifying, recruiting and supporting patients/service users as collaborators in education and research”
26thNovember 2014, 1-2pm
A225, College Building, City University London
Join Professor Alan Simpson Professor of Collaborative Mental Health Nursing in the School of Health Sciences, City University London and Lead for the Centre for Mental Health Research, in exploring how educators and researchers often see the merits of involving patients or service users in their teaching or research studies and are keen to ‘give it a go’ but get waylaid in various worries, concerns and questions. Things like:
“How do I identify and engage suitable people?”
“What can I ask them to do?”
“What if the stress makes them ill?”
“Will the students listen to them?”
“What about training and support?”
During the seminar Professor Simpson will draw on research literature, his experiences and those of colleagues to explore some of these challenges and how best to address them.
Anise Bullimore recently underwent treatment for breast cancer. Over the past year Anise has been sharing her experiences online but also running sessions with our nursing and radiotherapy students (please see video presentations below).
Anise said of her experiences of working with the School of Health Sciences:
‘It’s been a really positive experience. I’ve been able to make sense of the treatment and cancer and aftermath by creating presentations which has been really valuable. I’ve met some wonderful students and SHS staff and feel that I’ve been able to make a difference to how some people view cancer or understand patients. I’ve also had the chance to be involved a little in your courses and learning spaces which has helped me to understand teaching at City more. On top of that, during an extraordinarily stressful working year I’ve been able to do something that I’ve felt I was good at which helped me to feel confident, develop my skills and do something good at work.’
On behalf of the School of Health ‘User and Carer Engagement’ community we would like to thank Anise for sharing her experiences with our staff and students and presenting them with the invaluable insight of a patient’s journey down the road of cancer treatment. The impact Anise’s sessions have had can clearly be seen through the student responses to her rehabilitation talk:
During the course of Anise’s treatment she gathered a number of artifacts – writing, videos and pictures. Anise has kindly agreed we can share this material with you as they may be of use to your students in the future.
Read about the project “Stories with aphasia” set up by Drs Madeline Cruice and Lucy Dipper for individuals with aphasia to experience telling their story successfully. The project is designed to connect Londoners who have aphasia with volunteers who act as story-buddies, assisting each person to produce a digital multimedia story.
This case study includes some very positive feedback from students demonstrating the influence of service user experience in the classroom:
‘I personally loved it. I was fascinated by her story and what she has been through and could have listened to her for hours. It was interesting to hear from her perspective how she felt about the stigma and also about how the medication worked for her. I’d love to know even more about her experience and I think she is very brave!’
If you wish to speak to someone about user and carer activity please do contact your division’s Community Engagement representative listed on the key contacts page.
Welcome to our weblog. This site is designed to promote and support the involvement of patients, service users, carers and local communities in all educational and research activities across the School of Health Sciences.
You will find guidelines, suggestions, useful tips, resources, case studies and much more. Over time, we also hope people will use this blog to post examples of innovative practice, successful ideas, and even stories of where things went wrong!
Take a look around and please sign up for email updates when new posts are uploaded.
Best wishes,
Alan
Alan Simpson
Chair, Community Engagement (User and Carer Involvement) Strategy Committee
