Partnership in education: The involvement of service users in one midwifery programme in New Zealand

While policy directives in New Zealand and internationally urge us to involve service users in educational programmes for health professionals, there is a dearth of literature suggesting ways that this might fruitfully be accomplished, especially for involvement at the more strategic levels of curriculum planning and development. To enable educators of health professionals to respond creatively to policy directives or the philosophical orientations of their own professions, there is a pressing need for educators to share and debate their ideas and experiences of involving service users in their programmes. This paper provides a description of service user involvement (at a variety of levels) in a direct entry midwifery programme at Otago Polytechnic in the South Island of New Zealand. Since its inception, the school of midwifery has sought active and meaningful ways to work in partnership with women, in the education of midwives. This paper specifically describes user involvement in four key areas; contribution to the curricula, programme monitoring, development and strategic planning, recruitment of students and staff and participation in student clinical experience and assessment.