Dr Sue Baron

Baron, S. E M, 2014. Exploring the patient journey: a collaborative approach to patient-centred improvement in healthcare. Doctorate Thesis (Doctorate). Bournemouth University

Research interest: Communication challenges in palliative and end of life care, and coping with death and dying.

In 2018, I worked with a local hospice, Lewis Manning, as the BU member of the organising committee for an end of life care conference ‘Dying in a Modern World’ hosted by BU. The conference was attended by more than 100 delegates, almost 50% of whom were final year nursing students. Feedback from delegates emphasised the importance of events such as this, and the opportunity it gave for networking and sharing ideas as well as hearing from and meeting with inspirational speakers. These included Professor Sam Porter from BU, Dr Linda Thompson from Lewis Manning, and Seamus O’Mahoney, Consultant Gastroenterologist and author of the book ‘The Way We Die Now'.

I have also been involved with developing educational resources in collaboration with colleagues, students, and external experts. These aim to prepare and support health professional students for coping with challenging conversations associated with end of life care in practice, including breaking bad news, and coping with bereavement both in practice and in their personal life. Resources include recorded lectures and films developed with and by former BU Chaplain, Canon Dr Bill Merrington, which are currently accessible in a unit 'Therapeutic Communication in Adult Nursing' developed for student nurses.

Research interest - lived experience of service users and, or, service providers in healthcare. The outcomes and wider impact of my PhD demonstrated that understanding the lived experience of service users and providers, and involving service users and service providers in the review of health or social care services, people's experiences, or educational programmes for health and social care staff, is vital if a fair and just, learning culture is to replace a culture of blame, and person-centred, sustainable, quality improvement is to be consistently and effectively achieved. Examples of project work to date include 1) In 2017 I contributed to a grant application to Wellbeing of Women with Visiting Professor Sam Rowland and Prof, Edwin van Teilingen. We were seeking funding to support an action research study that would investigate women's and staff' experiences of early termination of pregnancy (abortion) and associated services for the purpose of learning and sustainable improvement. In 2017/18 I was co-supervisor of a Master's project which investigated university student perceptions of termination of pregnancy (abortion). This was successfully completed by student in 2018. 2) I contributed as lead of three, funded co-creation projects with final year students from our Faculty of Media and Communication to develop films which provide insights into 3 different people's experiences of using technology to manage life with a long-term health condition. These films can be accessed on Bournemouth University's Public Involvement in Education and Research (BU PIER) website. In 2018 I led a co-creation, collaborative project which led to a series of films, an educational toolkit and e-simulation that provide insights into the experiences of Helen as a hospital patient, and her interactions with healthcare professionals as someone with complex communication needs. These resources can be accessed online via the Virtual Empathy Museum https://www.virtualempathymuseum.

Research interest - simulation/simulated practice involving service users as authentic rather than standardised 'patients'; use of simulation to promote safe, person-centred care and practice; e-simulation toolkit to promote and strengthen empathy in health. Outputs to date include: 1) Co-author of ‘Snapshots of Simulation: Innovative Strategies used by International Educators to Enhance Simulation Learning Experiences for Health Care Students' (Andersen et al 2018). This paper profiles a diverse range of innovative, cost-effective and tested simulation approaches that have been implemented by nursing educators from a range of countries. 2) In collaboration with colleagues from BU and Universities of Brighton and Calgary in Canada, contributed to discussions, design and planning for multi-site international research project ‘The Impact of Simulation on Increasing Competence and Self-efficacy of Nursing Students in Recognition and Response to the Rapidly Deteriorating Patient’. This project is led by Dr Sandra Goldsworthy, Associate Dean Teaching Learning and Technology and Associate Professor, University of Calgary, Canada. 3) Enhancing empathy through e-simulation; plans for BU led and international research project to measure the impact of an open access e-simulation toolkit on student' empathy are in initial stages. The project team(s) has/have yet to be formalised but will include Professor Tracy Levett-Jones. University of Technology, Sydney. 4) involvement of service users (authentic patients), rather than actors or standardised patients, in simulated practice and the impact of this on student learning. Research project to measure impact of this simulation on student learning and experience is in initial planning stage.