Using technology to go beyond ‘face to face’ patient/student sessions.

My last blog argued that the good old ‘face to face’ session in which a patient talks about their lived experience to students is an example of tokenism if its the only involvement approach used. Too often in the past these sessions have only been used by academics as a way of allowing students to hear ‘from the horses mouth’ what its like to experience health conditions of all kinds. What’s wrong with this, you may well ask? Well, nothing, if you do it properly, do not overuse this method and its not the only type of involvement method you use. ‘Doing it properly’ in my view requires academics to really get to know your expert patient and be kind to them. For example, sorting out transport issues such as taxis or car parking slots beforehand if required. Spend time before the session and after it to ensure the person is ok. Brief the students before the session. One of the most important aspects that enables a face to face session to work is for the teacher to stay in the room with the person and before any one shouts ‘power and control issues’, I see my role as the intermediate to clarify issues between students and expert patient, not to control the session to my preconceived ends!  Whilst its true that all teaching sessions need to have learning objectives, a session that exposes students to the lived experience of a person is by its very nature a unique learning opportunity for all, including myself as an academic, and the expert patient themselves. It is useful however for all these good practices to be included as a protocol for staff who are inexperienced with such a session and would otherwise lack the confidence to do them (this lack of confidence is then a barrier if it prevents some academics from utilising lived experience sessions).

Sometimes however the retelling of a strong, emotionally resonant story can be very difficult for a person, particularly if they are regularly asked to tell it to differing audiences. In this case I have utilised recording the story (for example, using an mp3 recorder) and making it available to students to listen to as an audio podcast. Any face to face session could then be utilised as a question and answer session if appropriate. Alternatively, why not utilise online resources?  Q and A online forums, blogs and wikis are examples of how technology can be utilised to enable students to be exposed to the lived experience if the person themselves fely comfortable with such technology.  Recently with a colleague  l was involved in a meeting with a group of expert patients on the planning of a Q & A panel for students. One person was unable to attend the meeting in person so we utilised Skype to enable that person to be equally involved in the discussions. Using technology such as this can enable even the most disabled of patients to participate in involvement activities. A colleague once said to me they didn’t ask patients to attend face to face sessions as most of them would be too disabled! Using technology as in the previous example can help overcome such barriers.

As technology becomes ever more important within the education of students, there is no reason why we cannot also utilise it more to be creative and allow our students to be exposed to the lived experiences in more accessible ways. These can help overcome access and ’emotional fatigue’ problems that can often arise when a person addresses students in person. However,  if that method is used as I have argued, please be kind in the way it is conducted and always adhere to the needs of the person involved.