Ahead of the training programme
How the training programme is set up
For all professions
The training programme is suitable for all groups of professionals and all types of professional practice within health and social care. It focusses on how person-centred care can be used in to support your particular professional practice in your specific context with its unique opportunities.
4-10 meetings of 50 minutes each
The training programme consists of an initial meeting and three freestanding modules. Each module consists of three 50-minute meetings. If you want to complete the entire programme, the total time will therefore be 10 times 50 minutes. For groups with less time, it is also possible to hold the initial meeting and complete one or two of the modules.
Both theory and practice
The training programme is carried out in groups and the idea is for you to come up with collective approaches. Each meeting is a combination of theory, discussion and exercises. Between each meeting, the members of the group will practise and reflect in their day-to-day work.
Roles and responsibilities
The group
The training programme is to be conducted in groups of 4-6 participants. It is important to choose participants with different roles and skills. You will then have more perspectives and more opportunities to implement the changes you want after the training programme.
Group leader
One person in the group is group leader. The group leader is responsible for preparing each meeting, for facilitating the group and for providing instructions during the meetings. The group leader also participates in discussions and exercises in the training programme.
Support from managers
It is important that the group has explicit support from the managers concerned. The group needs the time required for the training programme to be set aside and to receive support to practise what they have learned.
Before the training programme starts
Plan and invite participants
- Seek agreement for this training at the head of your department
- Ensure explicit support from other managers concerned.
- Book times for all meetings and invite the participants.
- Appoint a group leader who will lead and prepare all the meetings.
Preparation for the group leader
- The group leader prepares and leads all the meetings.
- Preparations ahead of the initial meeting take approximately 60 minutes and should be completed a few days in advance. Other meetings require approximately 10-20 minutes of preparation.
Acquire equipment and materials
- Computer monitor, projector or mobile phones to read from.
- Ability to print on A4 sheets.
- Square Post-It notes in pink, yellow, green and blue.
- Pens for everyone in the group.
Voices on person-centred care
As head of operations I must ensure that we are providing good-quality care. We measure the proportion of patients who have a care plan within 24 hours of their arrival on the ward, which is a simple quantitative way of tracking all patients. The operational development officers interview patients about how involved they have been in producing the plan and provide same-day feedback to the doctors, nurses and assistant nurses who are responsible for the patient group. The effect is clear. The entire care team - including the patient - are much more on the same page regarding the aim of the care and the task of each team member. We have gained a lot more confidence in the competence of the patients themselves and they are more active during their stay in hospital. The person-centred approach has made a strong condition to the fact that we have shorter hospital stays, a falling readmission rate and thus fewer instances of over-occupancy, despite the fact that the number of people presenting at the emergency department is increasing and those that are admitted are more seriously ill.
As head of a care unit, I have had the opportunity to develop our approach and the care provided on the ward as my co-workers are interested in development and we are an innovative team. Person-centred care has changed how I work on several levels, but what I primarily want to highlight is how the relationships between patients become more genuine and important to their care and treatment. We listen, and I really mean LISTEN, to our patients’ stories so that we get to know them. It is so simple but still so difficult. It is about seeing, listening and understanding the other person. Demonstrating that we are not judging them, and instead that we see them for who they are. They are not psychotic patients, they are people. The change has been very positive! Mostly it involves positive soft values that are abstract and cannot, in many cases, be described, but what it involves is improvements to the climate, the care environment and relationships. We get closer to the patients and their relatives and we understand each other in a new way. We receive a lot of feedback to the effect that they are happy and that they would like to (if necessary) be admitted to our ward again. It has also radically reduced the number of involuntary interventions! It has also led to us trying to work more closely with our outpatient care and our other partners.
