The use of online groups to involve older people in influencing nursing care guidance

Abstract

The drive to involve service users in policy and practice decisions is occurring on an international basis, yet meaningful involvement is not as commonplace as it should be. There are numerous barriers to meaningful involvement of service users, and groupwork offers a potentially empowering approach to helping service users influence the policy and practice decisions that impact their lives. This paper describes a model of service user involvement based on an online communities of practice approach. Twenty-one older people and carers were recruited to take part in a project aimed at influencing the policy and practice of nursing older people on a national level (Scotland). Participants were taught IT skills and worked as an online group to articulate what they thought constituted good nursing care of older people. Together they produced two statements concerning prevention of depression and ensuring adequate nutrition for older people in care. This paper reports on one aspect of a larger evaluation of the project, namely the role of groupwork in the involving model. Content analysis of the groupwork records highlights the importance of groupwork and mutual aid in achieving group goals. The combination of groupwork, service user involvement, and interactive computer technology has much potential.