Graphic facilitation as a novel approach to practice development

Abstract

The active participation of staff from the outset of any health service or practice improvement process ensures they are more likely to become engaged in the implementation phases that follow initial service analyses. Graphic facilitation is a way of getting participants to develop an understanding of complex systems and articulate solutions from within them.This article describes how a graphic facilitation process enabled the members of a multidisciplinary team at a specialist paediatric neurosurgery hospital in Uganda to understand how their system worked. The large graphic representation the team created helped each team member to visualise their day-to-day practice, understand each person's contribution, celebrate their triumphs and highlight opportunities for service improvement. The process highlighted three features of their practice: an authentic interdisciplinary team approach to care, admission of the primary carer with the child, and previously unrecognised delays in patient flow through the outpatients department. The team's active participation and ownership of the process resulted in sustainable improvements to clinical practice.

Distinctive nursing practices in working with mothers to care for hospitalised children at a district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a descriptive observational study

“…Graphic facilitation [20][21][22], sociograms [23][24][25] and photo-elicitation [26][27][28] were used to stimulate participant engagement in individual and focus group interviews, with the intention of eliciting conceptually rich accounts of practice which were grounded in the cultures of the setting [29][30][31]. A detailed description of the participatory visual research methods employed has been provided elsewhere, together with outline interview schedules [31].…”

Distinctive nursing practices in working with mothers to care for hospitalised children at a district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a descriptive observational study

“…Graphic facilitation 20,21,22 , sociograms 23,24,25 and photo-elicitation 26,27,28 were used to stimulate participant engagement in individual and focus group interviews, with the intention of eliciting conceptually rich accounts of practice which were grounded in the cultures of the setting 29,30,31 . A detailed description of the participatory visual research methods employed has been provided elsewhere 31 .…”

Distinctive nursing practices in working with mothers to care for hospitalised children at a district hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a descriptive observational study

“…Graphic facilitation 20,21,22 , sociograms 23,24,25 and photo-elicitation 26,27,28 were used to stimulate participant engagement in individual and focus group interviews, with the intention of eliciting conceptually rich accounts of practice which were grounded in the cultures of the setting 29,30,31 . A detailed description of the participatory visual research methods employed has been provided elsewhere, together with outline interview schedules 31 .…”