Appreciating change in cancer services--an evaluation of service development strategies

The purpose of this paper is to report on an evaluative study which used appreciative inquiry (AI) to explore the processes of change during the Cancer Services Collaborative Improvement programme instituted by the Department of Health in the UK. This was a three-stage programme which expanded from nine pilot projects to a national service change, focussing on improving the patient's experience throughout the journey from diagnosis to treatment.

The paper uses AI questions in interviews with a range of CSC staff who had had different roles and length of involvement.

The study identified a range of strategies and skills that participants had developed in order to support and facilitate service change.

The paper offers a discussion of skills and strategies that can facilitate change in health care across clinical areas, and a discussion of the use of AI as a method of evaluation.

This study is one of the first to use AI in health care evaluation in the UK, and thus makes a contribution to understanding change from an AI perspective.