Back in 2013, when Healthwatch was just getting started as a champion for patient voice, I got the job of setting up the local Healthwatch in Devon.
As I recruited my team, my first question was "where do we get our training and professional development?". The answer – astonishingly – was that there wasn't any.
The NHS is, rightly, obsessed with training and qualifications. Clinicians can't practise without qualifications. Finance managers are qualified, as are HR staff. The caterers have qualifications. But patient experience staff – almost uniquely among the NHS workforce – are simply expected to muddle through.
For years, first with Healthwatch and then with the Patient Experience Library, I have been advocating for proper professional development for people charged with the complex task of hearing from patients. Now, at last, a new champion has stepped forward.
Earlier this year, Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) piloted a new course, Patient & Carer Experience: Delivering Safe, Equitable, High Quality Care. Twenty learners signed up – patient experience staff, complaints handlers, data analysts, Freedom to Speak Up Guardians and more. Most had existing or previous clinical experience.
At the start of the course, we were nervous. Would we have anything new to teach this committed and knowledgeable cohort? By the end, we knew we had a success on our hands.
Across three half-day modules we cover sources of evidence, and how they compare. We look at "ways of knowing" – whose knowledge counts, and why. And we explore levers of influence – how you can get the patient voice heard, even by people who might not think they need to hear it.
I'm involved with this course because I think that an NHS aiming to be both "patient-centred" and "evidence-based" needs to stop seeing patient feedback as "anecdotal evidence". It has to start understanding it as a powerful source of learning. And for that, it needs to make sure that staff responsible for patient voice – just like all those clinicians and managers and ancillary staff – are treated like professionals, with the kind of training and support that any other discipline would take for granted.
BSMS have made a fantastic start and I am proud to be part of the team delivering the course. I'll be there when the next one kicks off in November, and I hope you'll be there too.
If your role involves listening to patients, improving services or ensuring patient voices are heard, this course offers practical tools, evidence-based approaches and expert insight to help you make a greater impact. Join the next cohort and help shape a healthcare system where patient experience is recognised as a vital source of learning and improvement.
See full details on the course here >