Technology supported patient’s narratives to enhance healthcare student’s learning.

Narratives of illness experience have been used to enhance Healthcare professional’s learning at Cardiff University. This is primarily to enable students to consider the illness experience and psychosocial aspects of person centred healthcare. These learning opportunities were designed to broaden the students understanding of the psychosocial issues and psychological impact of a range of neurological, respiratory and musculoskeletal long term conditions. A variety of ways were utilised to engage patients in telling their stories, both in person and video and audio recording and online technology. Expert patients were invited in to talk about their experiences, be interviewed in small groups. These stories were made available to view the Universities online portal, via the University’s Panopto recording system. These were created with the support of a learning technologist who ensured the material was accessible to the student’s mobile devices. The perspectives the contributors gave changed the student’s perceptions about illness experiences. Formal feedback was obtained by a short questionnaire with open questions and the University Quality Assurance online system. 82% of students strongly agreed that the content and delivery of the session had met their expectations. Many comments were asking for more time to be given to this type of learning experience. The value of hearing about patient’s experiences is good preparation before students have to take the responsibility for decision making of treatments. These additional learning opportunities enhance the student’s portfolio of learning to promote person centred care