Hibbert Peter D, Yu Yinghua, Molloy Charlotte J, Ames Matthew, Brown Duncan, Berrill Jenny, Fernance Zoe, Morris Jennifer, Watson Liat
Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
IIMPACT in Health, Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Health Expect. 2025 Jun;28(3):e70281. doi: 10.1111/hex.70281.
There is growing recognition of the importance of consumer representatives (CRs), consumers with lived experience, and advisors and volunteers in health systems to foster consumer-oriented care. As part of this changing perception, some health services are inviting CRs to be on patient safety investigation teams. However, little is known from empirical studies about these representatives' experiences and perceptions of their roles. This paper aims to contribute to understanding CR's involvement on investigation teams by examining the benefits, challenges, and other aspects of their participation.
The study takes a qualitative approach and draws on data from interviews with 11 CRs and 10 focus groups comprising health service staff from Victoria, Australia, and a data interpretation workshop with an advisory panel of six consumers across four Australian states. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis.
We found that CRs have positive experiences in patient safety investigation teams, and their involvement often leads to more patient-focused reviews and outcomes, and use of plain language. However, they also experienced some challenges, such as not being fully respected as equal members of the team, feeling uncomfortable speaking up, and practical issues such as payments and access to documents. The chair/facilitator plays a significant role in engaging with CRs meaningfully, and directly shapes the behaviours of the entire investigation team. Both CRs and chairs/facilitators require considerable institutional and systematic training and support within health services.
The benefit of CRs on investigation teams outweighs the challenges across the individual, team/organisational and health systems levels. More resources and policies are needed to support CRs' sustainable inclusion, diversity and involvement in our current and future health services.
Eleven individuals with experience as CRs in patient safety investigation teams were interviewed. As indicated by the co-authors of this paper, six consumers from four states who are members of a research consumer advisory committee have been involved in co-designing the study methodology, interpreting the data, and writing this paper with the research team.
卫生系统中消费者代表（CRs）、有实际经验的消费者以及顾问和志愿者在促进以消费者为导向的护理方面的重要性日益得到认可。作为这种观念转变的一部分，一些卫生服务机构邀请消费者代表加入患者安全调查团队。然而，实证研究中关于这些代表的经历以及他们对自身角色的认知却知之甚少。本文旨在通过考察消费者代表参与调查团队的益处、挑战及其他方面，来增进对其参与情况的理解。
本研究采用定性研究方法，数据来源于对11名消费者代表和10个焦点小组的访谈，这些焦点小组由来自澳大利亚维多利亚州的卫生服务人员组成，还包括与来自澳大利亚四个州的六名消费者组成的咨询小组进行的数据解读研讨会。数据分析采用主题分析法。
我们发现，消费者代表在患者安全调查团队中有积极的体验，他们的参与通常会带来更关注患者的审查和结果，并采用通俗易懂的语言。然而，他们也遇到了一些挑战，比如没有被完全当作团队的平等成员受到尊重，发言时感到不自在，以及报酬和获取文件等实际问题。主席/协调人在与消费者代表进行有效互动方面发挥着重要作用，并直接影响整个调查团队的行为。消费者代表和主席/协调人在卫生服务机构内都需要大量的机构和系统培训及支持。
消费者代表参与调查团队的益处超过了在个人、团队/组织和卫生系统层面所面临的挑战。需要更多资源和政策来支持消费者代表持续融入、实现多样性并参与我们当前及未来的卫生服务。
对11名有在患者安全调查团队中担任消费者代表经验的个人进行了访谈。如本文共同作者所示，来自四个州的六名消费者作为研究消费者咨询委员会的成员，参与了研究方法的共同设计、数据解读以及与研究团队共同撰写本文。
