Public and Patient Involvement in Health Professional Programmes

The Public and Patient Involvement programme is a volunteer group that works within the Faculty of Medicine Health and Life Science.

Established in 2010, our purpose has been to involve the public in the development of healthcare programmes at Swansea University and to involve them in the learning and education of our students. Through our group, you will have the chance to give back to health services by helping to educate our future Healthcare Professionals. Health Volunteers provide first-hand experience, real life stories and inspire students to link theory to practice.

The professional and regulatory bodies for healthcare education such Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) require all education providers to include public and patient involvement in the planning, delivery, teaching and evaluation of professional programmes.

Become a Health Volunteer

As a Health Volunteer you can be involved with a range of activities including:

Sitting on the panel for student selection interviews for various programmes
Role playing/ Simulation in practical teaching sessions with students
Giving talks or presentations about your personal experiences to students
Developing learning resources such as giving interviews or making films
PEER Group - Providing feedback to various research projects

Throughout the year we hold training sessions for both new and existing health volunteers.

Why is Public and Patient Involvement important?

Public and patient involvement is quickly playing a larger role in professional healthcare programmes. This is a tribute to the benefits and impact it has on students and the positive feedback students give about their experiences working with Health Volunteers.

Whilst students gain experience from the patients’ perspective in clinical settings, for example when they are on placement, patients may be too ill or anxious for any significant learning to occur.

The Public and Patient Involvement Programme aims to provide both the student and the patient/Health Volunteer with a comfortable learning environment to work together. Meeting Health Volunteers outside of clinical environments helps students to gain a clearer understanding of how medical and social conditions can affect people’s daily lives.

Having the Health Volunteers involved in our healthcare programmes improves students’ communication skills, increases their understanding of patients’ health and social care needs and assists their cognitive and emotional development.

The PPI programme also provides a platform for the public to have the opportunity to have an input on the development and progression of the healthcare programmes within the University.

We are always analysing the feedback on the quality of our courses within the Faculty and when we do we make sure to include Health Volunteer feedback and suggestions to try to improve the students quality of education.

What support will you receive?

Each programme has a designated staff champion that will offer you their full support and our programme administrator is available from 9am – 5pm Mon-Fri to provide full support & advice.

Any travel expenses and parking will be reimbursed, you will also receive a £10 voucher for refreshments when volunteering on Campus.

If you would like to learn more about Patient and Public Involvement, or express your interest in becoming a health volunteer, contact the team at FMHLSHealthVolunteers@swansea.ac.uk to find out more.