Exploration of the perceived impact of carer involvement in mental health nurse education: Values, attitudes and making a difference

Academic settings are seen to be an ideal, although potentially privileged, environments in which to demonstrate meaningful and authentic involvement. Despite the lack of evaluation and evidence relating to the impact of involvement being noted in the early 2000's, there continues to be a lack of evaluative research in this area (Happell et al., 2014) with the examination of the carers perspective being even more limited. This paper presents qualitative findings emerging from an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) carried out on transcripts from five individual semi-structured interviews with family carers who contribute to the Bachelor of Nursing (Mental Health) programme at Edinburgh Napier University. The study sets out to explore the perceptions family carers have relating to their involvement in nurse education. Findings are themed and offer insights into why family carers become involved in educating nurses, the impact they perceive this involvement has on students and themselves and the meaning they make of the feedback they receive. Drawing on these themes and narratives provides opportunities to understand the motivation and drive carers have to improve health and social care services for carers and for people who use services while offering knowledge about how carers perceive and evaluate the impact of their contributions. Conclusions made relate to the value of involvement and how connecting with students thought out their programme of study builds rapport and meaningful, authentic partnerships. However, the strategic planning and continued investment in co-production as well as a deeper understanding of the complex relationship students and carers have is needed.; Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.