Involving patients with coronary heart disease in developing e-learning assets for primary care nurses

This paper reflects on the experience of involving patients in the development of computer-based learning materials. Those involved were recruited from community support groups in and around Sheffield in England. All had personal experiences of heart disease and participated as volunteers in a project to redevelop classroom-based courses about heart disease prevention. Four volunteers were very active in a project steering group and helped to shape the emphasis of the redeveloped course. Twenty-four volunteers contributed to the development of learning materials by recording video clips of themselves talking about the experiences of living with heart disease and using health services. These video clips were integrated into an interactive package that included a CD ROM and paper based workbook. Students using the package were very positive about the volunteer input, commenting that authentic experiences helped engage and motivate their learning. The paper discusses this project in relation to wider literature about patient involvement in education. The literature is limited and more research would be useful to provide evidence of costs and benefits of this kind of resource intensive initiative.