User involvement as sharing knowledge - an extended perspective in patient education.

Area of Science:

• Health professions education
• Patient engagement
• Health services research

Background:

• Patient education is evolving to include patient perspectives.
• Incorporating user experience is crucial for quality health services.
• The nature of user involvement and collaboration remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe collaboration characteristics between users and health professionals.
• Focus on developing, implementing, and evaluating patient education courses.
• Investigate the dynamics of user-professional partnerships in healthcare settings.

Main Methods:

• Field study conducted in three hospitals.
• Observations of 17 collaboration groups (100 participants) and 24 interviews.
• Thematic analysis and Systematic Data Integration approach used.

Main Results:

• Two collaboration types identified: knowledge sharing and information exchange.
• Knowledge sharing involved mutual input and shared decision-making.
• Information exchange lacked dialogue and professional-led decisions.

Conclusions:

• Collaboration in patient education is often asymmetric.
• Mutual knowledge sharing is essential for shared decision-making.
• Health professionals must facilitate knowledge sharing with users.