Patient engagement in nursing training: An exploratory study

Context: The initial training of healthcare professionals can be used to develop health democracy if patients are sufficiently involved.

Objectives: To describe the level of patient engagement in some nurse training institutes and to understand what motivates and hinders this engagement.

Method: Exploratory study based on interviews with five patient trainers and eight nurse training institute trainers. The analysis of patient engagement levels was based in part on the Carman scale and the Montreal model.

Results: Two trends emerged from this first study: consultation-style patient involvement, and partnershipstyle involvement, where the patient is involved in the pedagogical co-construction of a few teaching units and not of the entire training course. Elements facilitating patient involvement were linked to the participants’ motivation, patient support, and patient recruitment methods. Conversely, a lack of institutional motivation, overly demanding recruitment, the absence of remuneration, and inaccessibility could be barriers to patient engagement.

Conclusion: Patient engagement in preliminary healthcare training should be considered across the entire curriculum and formalized.