Accessible summary
Digital stories provide a creative way for people to tell their stories using an amalgamation of voice, image and music, and can be used to engage nurses with others' experiences in the classroom setting.
Seven people with early‐stage dementia and one carer participated in making their own stories during a digital storytelling workshop.
These participants experienced particular and varied challenges relating to telling a story and engaging with the technical process of digital storytelling. They were supported in overcoming these challenges through person‐centred relationships with facilitators, allowing them to negotiate the help required.
During the workshop a number of positive changes were observed in the participants: increased confidence, improved speech, a sense of purpose and increased connection.
Abstract
Care and compassion are key features of the NHS Constitution. Recent reports have identified a lack of compassion in the care and treatment of older people. Nurses draw on aesthetic knowledge, developed through engagement with the experience of others, when providing compassionate care. Patient Voices reflective digital stories are used in healthcare education to facilitate student engagement with the patient experience. Digital stories were made with seven people with early‐stage dementia as part of a learning package for student nurses. In this paper the authors reflect on their experience and observations from facilitating the 4‐day digital story‐making workshop. Social theories of dementia provide a theoretical framework for understanding these reflections. Despite considerable challenges in developing a story, and anxiety about using the technology, reading and speaking, all participants engaged in creating their own digital stories. Positive changes in the participants' interactions were observed. These improvements appeared to be the product of the person‐centred facilitation and the creative process which supported self‐expression and a sense of identity. Nurses working in this way could facilitate ability of the person with dementia to participate in their care, and improve their sense of well‐being by supporting self‐expression.
Higher education in the UK has seen a steady increase in the numbers of part-time teachers, yet the way in which they are inducted into teaching and the utilisation of their expertise are under-researched. This qualitative study of 33 part-time teachers from several universities suggests that their involvement in higher education should be considered from a fresh perspective, which differs from approaches to the enhancement of university teaching that rely upon simply educating individual teachers to do better by requiring their attendance at formally provided courses and events. While these approaches have their place, modern research on professional learning is increasingly pointing to the view that professional formation is an ecological process that is insufficiently served by the formal provision of learning opportunities. The ecological perspective, which emphasises the part played by the everyday workplace in professional formation, provides a challenge to leaders and managers regarding the development and implementation of institutional policy and practice.
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