60 seconds with Anna Dinsdale: Our new GUCH patient event at Barts
In her 60 seconds interview, Anna Dinsdale - our Clinical Nurse Speciailist from the Grown Up Congential Heart (GUCH) team tells more about why the team organised their first-ever education event for patients, how this came about and what the learnings were from the experience.
What is your role at St Bartholomew's?
I am one of the Clinical Nurse Specialists working in the Grown Up Congenital Heart (GUCH) team at Barts.
What do you love most about your role?
I love being able to make a positive difference to the lives of patients living with congenital heart disease and being able to help in the development of staff coming into the speciality.
Tell us more about the recent GUCH patient event you held. How did it come about?
We recently held our first ever patient education evening for patients who are seen within the GUCH service. I was aware that as a service we had no formal way of learning from patient experience. Exploring ways of patients coming together as group seemed an appropriate way to do that.
What was the aim of this event?
The aim was to begin to ask patients about their experience using the service set within an informative and hopefully enjoyable event. It would also provide an opportunity for patients to meet other patients that might have had similar experiences. As congenital heart disease is a lifelong condition having a network of peer support can be extremely helpful for patients.
What was the format of the event?
We held the event in the West Wing conference room and had 5 guest speakers. These comprised of one of my CNS colleagues Sandy talking about the service and our role, a physiotherapist talking about exercise advice, a GUCH cardiologist and an artist Sofie Layton. Sofie had recently curated an exhibition that had been developed with patients at Great Ormond Street hospital and their experiences of living with congenital heart disease.
The most powerful talk was by Fran Lassman - one of our clinical psychologists - who spoke with one of our patients about their experiences of accessing psychological support and how transformative this had been.
What are your plans for growing this event in the future? What are the next steps?
We had a really positive reaction to the event and had really good feedback. It has definitely motivated me to organise more events in the future as it has been so beneficial for people. We are hoping to arrange events on a four monthly basis. We will also look at arranging smaller meet ups for patients with specific needs for example with learning disabilities and those who need treatment for heart failure.
What were your key learnings from this first event?
The main learning point from the event was about how we provide information to our patients, particularly in terms of who is in the team and how to contact us in certain situations. On the back of this we are looking to improve the information we provide on our website.
What are the challenges?
In terms of organising the event the most challenging aspect was arranging the food delivery! Other than that everything fell in to place. I had really good support from my very motivated colleagues. Thank you team!
Why are events like this important for patients – especially GUCH patients?
From the feedback we received after the event, two main themes emerged.
Firstly - being able to meet other patients with similar experiences.
Secondly - being able to meet members of the clinical team in a more relaxed environment.
What top tips would you give other teams thinking of holding a similar event for their own patients?
I would definitely encourage other teams to think about arranging something similar, especially for those with long term conditions. Enlist help from those working with you and from senior colleagues who may have experience of arranging these events previously. Also, ask patients about what they want. If people are on board and feel involved they are more likely to attend. We asked patients to register via the Eventbrite website which gave us an idea of how many people were going to attend in advance.