Understanding compassion
Thu, 23 Feb 2012 16:46:00 GMT
University signs a pact with major healthcare charity
Patients Association CEO Katherine Murphy with the University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bob Cryan.
NEW standards of compassion and care in health and social care are the goal of a partnership between the University of Huddersfield and the Patients Association, a major healthcare charity.
The University had already forged links with the Association when it established the Claire Rayner Scholarship, named after the famous agony aunt and former nurse who campaigned hard for the interests of patients before her death in October 2010.
The University’s Dean of Human and Health Sciences, Sue Bernhauser, had served with Claire Rayner – who had been President of the Patients Association - on a commission on nursing set up by Gordon Brown when he was PM.
It was decided to take the relationship a stage further. So a Memorandum of Understanding was drawn up between the University and the Patients Association. It was signed by the Chief Executive of the Association, Katherine Murphy, and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield, Professor Bob Cryan, at a special event which included contributions from researchers and experts in the field of patient care and service-user engagement – which enables patients to play an active role in healthcare, education and policy.
The event included a presentation by the first holder of the Claire Rayner Scholarship, Barbara Schofield, nurse consultant for older people at the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust and based at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, who has embarked on research for a PhD on compassion in nursing.
And the day had a moving conclusion with the debut screening of a DVD made shortly before his recent death by Richard Smith, a cerebral palsy sufferer who did not allow his disabilities to prevent him leading a full and active life which included campaigning for charity and a close involvement with the University of Huddersfield. He played a key role in social work courses, helping to interview potential students. In recognition of this he was awarded an honorary degree by the University in 2007.
The active engagement of service users in healthcare courses at the University of Huddersfield is a major priority, explained Dr Janet Hargreaves, who is Associate Dean in the School of Human and Health Sciences.
“We want public engagement to be something that we do particularly well,” she explained. “Our students meet members of the public right the way through their studies. This helps them to become much more aware of their role with the public and it also means that our courses are much more geared towards the people that they are serving.”
The School seeks to develop special relationships with key organisations in the field of service-user engagement, said Dr Hargreaves. “And the Patients Association is passionate about improving the quality of healthcare education and research,“ she added.
At the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, Professor Cryan said: “As a university we form many fruitful partnerships with firms, research bodies and government institutions and I am proud of them all. But there is something special about the Memorandum of Understanding that we sign today with the Patients Association.
“We are highly privileged to work with this excellent organisation and I am confident that our collaboration will produce real benefits for the most important people in the healthcare sector – namely, the patients.”
Among the fruits of the partnership will be research collaborations, said Dr Hargreaves. “We are particularly excited about the possibility of jointly researching areas around the care of elderly people”.
Preliminary discussions have already taken place between the Association and professor Annie Topping and Dr. Karen Ousey of the School's Centre for Health and Social Care Research, to identify areas of mutual interest.
Barbara Schofield, the first recipient of Claire Rayner Scholarship
THE first holder of the Claire Rayner Scholarship, Barbara Schofield (pictured above right with Katherine Murphy), has now embarked on her four-year programme of PhD study, which will lead to a thesis on the subject of compassion in nursing. She gave a presentation at the event which celebrated the University’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Patients Association.
Barbara is Huddersfield born, and combines her research with her role as nurse consultant for older people in Calderdale and Kirklees. Her original nursing specialisation was the field of cardiology care, but during an eight-year spell as a matron her responsibilities included overseeing wards for the elderly.
She developed a deep interest in the care of older patients and the seeds for PhD research were sown. She had already discussed her project with the University of Huddersfield’s Professor Annie Topping when the Claire Rayner Scholarship was announced. She applied and, against stiff competition, she received the coveted award.
She will conduct research by observing nurses who care for the elderly, and will also spend time with patients themselves. She will compile evidence of compassionate care and one of the issues she will ponder is the extent to which compassion is a quality that can be taught. She believes that although her research focuses on nursing, her findings will apply to other healthcare disciplines.
