Reaching a consensus on service-user involvement in courses for professionals

To describe how a workshop that used a modified nominal group technique (NGT) was used at the end of a research project to develop a standard of education and training requiring UK education providers to include service users in the design and delivery of education and training.

Often the objective of a research project is to deliver a decision where there is insufficient objective evidence. In this particular instance a decision was sought on whether service users should be involved in the design and delivery of education and training for healthcare professionals and what this involvement might look like. One solution can be to use a formal approach to decision making. NGT is one of several approaches to decision making that seeks to achieve consensus among participants.

A modified NGT workshop was used and included students, service users and academic staff.

This paper describes the workshop, its outcomes and points to consider when using such an approach.

This paper outlines a modified NGT that was used in a workshop to complement other research techniques and provides practical tips on how to maximise the chances of the success of the approach. Modifications were necessary to address the particular challenges posed in this research.

The modified NGT approach outlined in this paper could be used by nurses when addressing questions and issues related to service-user involvement in planning the design and delivery of education and training.