Academics from four countries travelled to Northumbria University, Newcastle, to discuss the next steps for a three-year education and research patient-safety project.
The University hosted the transnational
management group for the SLIPPS project. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of
the European Union, SLIPPS (Shared Learning from Practice to improve Patient
Safety) is an innovative project that will draw on the real experiences of
health and social care students in work placements across five European
countries.
Errors, mishaps and misunderstandings are
common and around one in 10 patients suffer avoidable harm. These incidents
affect patients, their families, health care organisations, staff and students.
SLIPPS is responding to the challenge to improve patient safety education.
Led by Northumbria’s Dr Alison Steven,
Associate Professor in Health Professions Education, the team includes
Professor Pauline Pearson and DR Val Larkin also from Northumbria and
colleagues from six partner universities - Saimaa University of Applied
Sciences in Finland; the University of Alicante in Spain; the University of
Eastern Finland; the University of Genoa in Italy; Østfold University College
in Norway and Lappeenranta University of Technology, in Finland.
Dr
Steven said: “These face to face meetings are key to such multinational
collaborations and help develop relationships and a shared understanding of the
project. This was a very fruitful visit, helping advance the progress of the
project and develop new ideas for additional work and collaborations.”
During
the visit, Northumbria ran a SLIPPS mini conference with a welcome from Professor Greta Defeyter, Faculty Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Strategic
Planning & Engagement), which highlighted the project and saw the partners
giving presentations about their contribution and their areas of research
expertise.
The
conference attracted a range of stakeholders including attendees from a
strategic level in North East health care organisations, people from various
health and social care professions, teaching and learning and research staff
from Northumbria and other universities.
Delegates
also enjoyed a tour of Northumbria’s Clinical Skills Centre, where the University
displayed its expertise in technology and simulation.
The
underlying premise of the three-year project is that students experience a wide
range of important learning events linked to patient safety while they are on
placement. These experiences and students’ reflections on them are a valuable
but often untapped resource both for students and educators and for research.
The project aims to collect these experiences and use them as the basis for a
range of educational resources.
