Wider Patient Engagement (WPE) activity enables student nurses to develop their experiences of working with people in the community to learn more about what matters to individuals and families in terms of:
- their experiences of health and wellbeing
- issues relating to accessing health services/health provision
- listening and responding to the patient voice and concerns about their experiences of health care delivery
- understanding how changes are made to improve health care delivery by health care providers.
Student nurses can undertake WPE activity in a number of ways during the nursing programme. It is advised that they first discuss their WPE ideas with their personal tutor before undertaking WPE. Although not mandatory, it is recommended that students undertake a form of WPE during the programme.
Student nurses can change the type of WPE during the programme to fully engage and make the relevant connections with clinical placement types. The student experience of WPE activity must be ‘non-clinical’ but will directly link to the ePAD requirements for clinical practice.
We advise student nurses to discuss WPE opportunities with their nurse mentor during every placement to ensure that they are able to link their WPE activity to their ePAD requirements .
WPE can involve student nurses undertaking activities with patient groups/patient support groups/patient councils/patient representation organisations either face to face or virtually.
We encourage all of our nursing students to undertake virtual WPE with the Care Opinion Organisation. Some NHS Trusts in the South West already have contracts in place to engage and respond to patient and family feedback via the Care Opinion website.
Student nurses can provide patients and families with information on how to provide feedback about their experiences of health care.