Nursing: Service Users and Carers Group

‘It’s the little things that matter’

Compassion

Dignity

Respect

Joined-up care

Personalised care

Good communication

Kindness

Being listened to

These are some of the key messages our Service Users and Carers Group bring to the training of nurses in the School of Health and Society.

The Nursing Service Users and Carers Group (SU&C) is a collective group of service users, carers and parents who have past and current lived experience of engaging with local healthcare services and or providing care for family or friends. The group shares their breadth and wealth of expertise and diverse lived experiences in an open genuine, generous and frank manner with students to ensure that the voices of the public, patients and carers are fully heard and represented in the nursing curriculum

The SU&C members are highly respected and form an integral part of our nursing directorate activities. The aim of the inclusion of the SU&C group is to improve the quality of training programmes for our student nurses.

Group members share lived experiences to increase understanding and awareness of individual patient needs, their vulnerability and patient safety. Their involvement helps to ensure a person-centred approach to the curriculum and helps students to develop a compassionate and humanistic approach to care, and to develop their communication skills along with their competencies and professionalism, which are all critical in providing safe and high-quality care. 

The SU&C group was established over 15 years ago to quality assure undergraduate nursing curricula and has representation from all age groups with diverse healthcare and cultural backgrounds.  

The group members participate in all stages of the student journey including the recruitment and interviewing process, the design and delivery of courses, contribution to lectures and seminars, and the production of re-useable learning materials, such as digital stories, audio or videos. Group members are also involved in the assessment and evaluation of nursing courses being delivered across undergraduate, postgraduate and post-qualifying education and training. The Learner and Service User/Carer Conference for Year 1 pre-registration nurses is a key annual activity for group members and has been in place since the inception of the SU&C group