This is the research blog of Dr Sally Pezaro. Dr Pezaro is working to secure excellence in perinatal services. Specialist interests include workforce, gender and midwifery research.
Looking at the lives of healthcare workers through the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, this project explores their ‘human’ experiences – in contrast to the public and media portrayal of them as ‘heroes’.
The audio artwork is the representation of the stories, experiences and emotions of eight healthcare workers from Coventry and across the UK, gathered during an online creative workshop. From this, we identified seven themes, including the theme of the ‘hero’ narrative. While some might consider the label of ‘hero’ as praise, many of our healthcare worker participants explained that it sometimes caused feelings of guilt. A shift in focus is needed to recognise the emotional and physical toll for individuals. Adequate support is needed to help healthcare workers find meaning in their experiences.
On the 5th of May (International Day of the Midwife – #IDM2020) 2020 – The year of the nurse and the midwife, the @hEDStogether team launched new educational tools to support childbearing with hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD). Co-incidentally, May is also Ehlers Danlos Syndromes and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders awareness month. You can view the online launch of these tools along with our other @GOLDMidwifery presentations here at the GOLD Online Education Midwifery Conference 2019/2020.
An i-learn module launched by the Royal College of Midwives to their members (search under the letter ‘H’ for hypermobility in the online library)
A maternity tool freely available for download and wider use
An infomercial to raise awareness and mobilise knowledge in relation childbearing with hEDS/HSD
We were also able to launch our own website – hEDSTogether.com and keep everyone up to date with the project via @hEDStogether
We have made these tools freely available where possible. You can visit the project page to learn more. If you are using them to create an impact in the world, please tell us about it via the contact pages hosted at hEDSTogether.com.
On the 10th of May 2019, I was invited to an event to celebrate the successes and challenges of Co-Creation, and the wonder of working together, fully, actively and with a shared philosophy. This was definitely an area I was keen to learn more about and a methodology I was keen to use in my research…I was intrigued.
The event was funded by and centered around the 3-year European project ‘Co-Creating Welfare’, designed to improve the implementation of Co-Creation in the welfare sector. This event happened toward the end of the project. It was conducted in partnership with colleagues in Denmark, France, Portugal and the UK, and led by Dr Gemma Pearce and Paul Magee from Coventry University.
1. Co-creation is innovative and aims to create new prosperity in a local context
2. Co-creation creates new qualities through combinations of different resources
and skills
3. Co-creation is a dialogue-based process, where the different actors define the
challenge and the solution together
4. Co-creation propagates initiative and the rights for all to participate
5. Co-creation creates an understanding of interdependence
6. Co-creation requires openness and willingness to take risks
“The Danish NGO “The Voluntary Council”
Presentations from co-creators showcased their collaborative activities, barriers, opportunities and provided tangible case-studies of practice with practical, bite-sized tools to compliment delegates’ own work.
Always Events® are defined as “those aspects of the patient and family experience that
should always occur when patients interact with healthcare professionals and the
delivery system.”
Always Events is a trade marked product owned by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement. It was originally developed by the Picker Institute in the USA – http://www.ihi.org
NHS Mandate states that by 2020 we must: ‘improve the percentage
of NHS staff who report that patient and service user feedback is
used to make informed improvement decisions’
The amazing @EmilyAhmed_ shared insights about participatory appraisal as a tool for engaging with communities. Mapping creatively leads to different outcomes #CoCreatingWelfare @CocreateWelfare
So then we got to immerse ourselves in co-creation… What did this look like?
Being introduced to the ‘CUBE’
A Co-Creating Welfare Activity
You can learn more about the CUBE via the video below…
Using the CUBE, we were asked ‘What gets in the way of a truly co-creative culture?’...then we were engaged in co-creation activities facilitated by @diarmuiddenneny & @nabualaw outputs were co-created by @lorrainewolfen1@KazObuka@sandra_sjp@WNECumbriaMVP …The following videos summarize what followed…
Participants were also asked to use the CUbe in co-creation facilitated by @diarmuiddenneny & @nabualaw …here is a a summary presentation of this activity by @KazObuka ..
Through Co-Creation, all stakeholders are involved in shaping the decisions that impact them….
What did I learn?
What is co-creation not…
-Not financial
– Not top down decision-making
– Not telling and selling
– Staff dictating terms of reference
– Cannot be forced
– Staff persuading/influencing people about the change area
– Not managerial
– Not about exclusion
– Not about paying lip service
– Not driven by organisational priorities
– Not having a shared goal or purpose
– Not being asked for service user input and then the project not happening
– Not one person’s idea
– Not about reaching an outcome in a defined time
– Not institutional or increasing red tape
– Clients not receiving feedback about the changes
– Not ticking an inspectorate box
What is Co-Creation?
Some people may call it cocreation, co-creation, coproduction, co-production, codesign, co-design, coproduce, co-produce and/or co-construction. People who co-create are ‘Co-creators’, and this is how they define Co-creation….
-Meeting people – Connecting, talking, sharing
– Developing shared understanding and vision
– Active engagement
– Making people feel heard
– Having shared processes and shared outputs
– No assumptions
– Patients are humans, not processes or policies
– Importance of listening
– Ensuring you get input from a range of groups, not just those most easily
accessible or articulate
– Developing a shared list of objectives
– Opportunities for clients to make a change
– The importance to allow time to build relationships
– Accessible and flexible
– Creative
– Celebrating success together
– The process that facilitates stakeholders to have equal status and value in
the creation of a process, product or service
– Helping staff to also feel heard and on board
– Adaptable approaches to client engagement
– Ensuring we meander everywhere
– Importance of equality of voices in shaping services
– Making clients feel valued in their care and giving them purpose
– Importance of not over-defining scope which can limit creativity
– Seeing things from peoples’ perspective
Example rules for co-creation
-Contribute to the co-creation community through their experiences, skills and time;
-Distribute leadership responsibilities and collectively share co-creation community-Engage in insightful and non-threatening discussions of ideas and experiences;
-Be respectful and use appropriate language in team discussions;
-Listen and respond to each other with open and constructive minds;
-Be willing to share challenges, lessons learned, constraints / barriers faced and
successes;
-Not be afraid to respectfully challenge each other by asking questions;
-Will refrain from personal attacks;
-Be committed to build on each member’s strengths;
-Be committed to help others to improve areas that need further development;
-Use short, clear sentences and avoid using obscure expressions without an
explanation;
-Be committed to search for opportunities for consensus or compromise, and for
creative solutions;
-Be willing to contribute to an atmosphere of problem solving;
-Promote their personal and professional goals through participation in the cocreation community.
(Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016)
What does a co-creation event look like in practice?
English Co-production Network Exploration Event from At The Moment Productions on Vimeo.
My Takeaways…
Breaking down the co-creation process into three manageable chunks certainly makes it easier for me to think about how to structure my own co-creation activities in future…
Stage One: Co-Define
Stage Two: Co-Design
Stage Three: Co-refine
Free information loaded postcards to takeaway means that I can now refer to what I have learnt on the go to support me in co-creating ‘on the move’…
Seven co-creation activities to use in practice…
The Q Sort Activity, which is an activity to experience collaborative work and collective problem formulation.
Role Play Activity, which is an activity to experience how to collect ideas and knowledge to solve a concrete challenge.
Story Cubes Activity, which is an activity to experience the creation of common narratives related to a challenge or solution.
Fish Bowl Activity, which is an activity to experience collaborative problem solving.
Meta Plan Activity, which is an activity to experience how to draw on the existing knowledge within a group.
The Cube Activity, which is a method to support a creative brain storm activity.
I am also fascinated by the amazing ‘SPRINT’ methodology (from Google Venture) introduced to us by the inspiring @dietercise. I will certainly be implementing this methodology into my future work. Learn more via the media below…
How does SPRINT work in practice?
Get access to the full co-creation toolkit associated with this project here. Currently, this site shows the project process, but in Sept 2019 it will be revised and updated to it’s final version.
Lastly, it is important to remember that…
Thank you to everyone involved in the #CoCreatingWelfare project for supporting the development of personal and inter personal skills in co-creation for all!
If you would like to follow the progress of work going forward..