School of Nursing and Midwifery Service User and Carer Strategy Group NEWSLETTER
User and
CarerNEWSLETTER
Strategy Group
User and Carer Strategy
Group
Welcome to the 3rd quarterly newsletter from the User and Carer Strategy Group (UCSG)
at Keele University School of Nursing and Midwifery. This edition has a focus on
‘Mental Health and Well-Being’
This UCSG is an established group who meet regularly within the School and
also meet up with individuals and patient groups relating to the four fields of
nursing (Adult, Child, Learning Disabilities, Mental Health) and Midwifery.
Our aim is to guide the School with: best practice of engagement with people
who use healthcare services, establish links with people who are interested in
supporting healthcare education, sharing good practice and celebrating
achievements.
This newsletter is intended for people in our local community, nursing and
midwifery students, healthcare professionals and academic staff.
Spring 2016 issue:
Pg. 1 Introduction
If you are interested in being involved with the selection of future nursing
and midwifery students, sharing your experiences to support learning or
have achievements to share please contact us:
Telephone: Sue Ashby 01782 679550 Email: [email protected]
Pg. 1 Mental Health
Pg. 2 –3
Celebrating achievements
Mental Health Nursing at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Keele University
The School of Nursing and Midwifery at Keele University provides nursing programmes at Bachelor,
Masters and Doctoral level for those who wish to become registered nurses, and for registered nurses
who wish to develop their knowledge and expertise. The School has an enviable reputation, being 2nd in
the 2015 National student survey of UK Nursing and Midwifery Schools and 2nd in the Guardian 2016
league table results of Nursing and Midwifery Schools in England.
The mental health pre-registration nursing programme has an intake of around 28 students a year, and
these students spend half their three year programme in the school and half in placements where they are
supported by specially trained nurse mentors.
In both the school and on placements, service users, patients and carers all play a vital role in working
with us to develop and deliver the mental health nursing programmes. We are especially grateful to all
the people with lived experiences of mental health problems, who share their journey to recovery with our
nursing students, in order that they truly understand the person’s perspectives. In this newsletter we will
give a flavour of this work .
School of Nursing and Midwifery Service User and Carer Strategy Group NEWSLETTER
Service users and carers provide feedback to our mental health students whilst
lara
on placement. Here 2nd year mental health student nurses Lara Green
(pictured) left and Alexa Bentley (pictured below left) share their experience of
this. “Receiving feedback from mental health service users has been very rewarding,
it has enabled me to feel appreciated and to know that I have made a difference to the
person I have been working with. Although as student nurses we always receive feedback from our mentors and nursing staff, the testimonial of the service user is the
most important. This allows us to learn where we can improve and what we are
already doing well, service user input helps us to develop our practice skills and to
ensure we are always putting the person we are caring for at the centre. I have
received testimonials from two service users so far and as the course progresses I
always look back on this feedback to remember what I have achieved and how I can
develop my skills further.” LG
“This testimonial is the best part of my degree although it’s great to get good grades
and lecturers’ feedback, knowing I help a person in their recovery is the best feedback
a student could receive.” AB
Alexis Warrilow and Lynda Smithies (pictured left), mental health lecturers
describe how Keele University mental health nursing students learn about the
experience of Personality Disorder.
Keele 2nd year mental health nursing students attend a 3 day workshop, jointly
facilitated by a mental health nurse lecturer and a service user with lived experience of
this diagnosis. This awareness level programme is part of the national 'Knowledge
and Understanding Framework' and provides students with the awareness required to
work more effectively with service users with a diagnosis of personality disorder. This
partnership working has enabled Keele nursing students to benefit from understanding
the impact of this diagnosis, and prepare them to work with others to improve the care
We are privileged to work with many people who inspire and educate our mental health student
nurses. We have worked with Judith, a service user representative, on many occasions, and here
Judith shares her perspective of working with student nurses at Keele.
“It has been a privilege and a joy to sit in on some of the training sessions with these students. To
personally witness how ideas and perspectives have changed over time. As someone who has used mental
health services since the '70's it gives me renewed hope for the future, to see how approaches have
changed over time.”
“Future mental health services users’ will I'm sure be seen as individuals and responded to accordingly. No
longer just a name or number. Yes students need to be aware of diagnoses but thankfully no longer a
blanket approach/ response for all.”
“Most of all though, to be able to sit in on their training and to witness the students willingness to take on
new ideas, their eagerness to make a difference to the lives of people, who often carry with them the stigma
associated with their diagnosis, has been for me most rewarding.”
School of Nursing and Midwifery Service User and Carer Strategy Group NEWSLETTER
3rd year student nurse, Hope Stevens (pictured left), looks back on the
importance of service user and carer input during the mental health degree
programme at Keele University.
“I have been a student on the mental health nursing programme at Keele for the last
two and a half years .50% of the course is in placements and 50% in University. During
placements I have been privileged to care for service users and their families and
learned from this experience. In the classroom we have also been taught by service
users on several occasions, they provide experience, feelings, knowledge and an
expert view on the subject at hand. The lectures given by service users included
complex areas of mental health and the subjects were always explained with such vast
knowledge and awareness that the subjects became real and more understandable for
us. Lecturers also varied from service users to family members of service users or
carers, this reiterated for us just how important it is to care and support all of those
involved in the service user’s care.”
“One specific lecture included a family member of a service user with dementia. This
family member helped us to gain an understanding of good communication skills,
helped us to understand the different types of dementia and passed on the knowledge
of how it feels to care for someone who has dementia. This insight was invaluable
towards providing high quality person centred care for those we support in practice.”
“As student nurses we are involved in a personal and sometimes difficult time in
service users’ lives, therefore an expert look into the way service users view the
services and what could be improved is vital. From these sessions other students and I
have been able to take the knowledge of how service users feel and improve our care
because of this, including taking the time to listen and ensuring that carers and
relatives are always also treated with dignity and respect.”
Clinical Lead Nurse Janet Sigley reports on an innovative learning session jointly
run between service users and nursing staff to facilitate interpersonal skills
acquisition for student nurses in their placement area.
This initiative was developed by Janet following an interesting discussion with a service
user who described a negative experience during a hospital admission. Attention was
drawn to the impact of disrespectful communication and the importance of nonverbal
communication and empathy.
Janet developed an interactive training session jointly run by up to 3 service user
volunteers and nursing staff. This training enables the students to develop their
interpersonal communication with service users who give feedback to develop students’
abilities.
Students have reported that feedback from the service users is more valuable than
from anyone else because they have a lived experience of mental illness. Service users
report that running these sessions helps to improve their self-esteem, they feel valued
and appreciate being able to mould future mental health professionals.