Dear Editor,
We read with interest the article ‘Public Participation in Healthcare Student Education: An Umbrella Review’ by Nowell et al. [1]. Their work highlights the benefits of involving patients in healthcare education, such as enhancing empathy, patient‐centred decision‐making and safety [1].
The PULPIT Consortium, funded by ERASMUS+, promotes public and patient involvement (PPI) in the interprofessional education (IPE) of healthcare students [2]. Our project addresses students' limited early patient interaction and poor understanding of patient‐centred care and healthcare roles. We aim to implement an educational module that will be freely accessible through a dedicated online platform, as well as recommendations for PPI in the IPE of undergraduate healthcare students, following the ‘Vancouver Statement’ [3]. This project builds upon two main partner initiatives: the ‘Health Mentors Programme’, coordinated by the Patient and Community Partnership for Education (PCPE; https://health.ubc.ca/pcpe), and the ‘Patient as a Person’ project [4], developed by the Maastricht University and the Patient as a Person Foundation (https://mensachterdepatient.nl/), which have been instrumental in advancing patient involvement in healthcare education.
Nowell et al.'s article [1] is a valuable resource for raising awareness of the benefits and complexities of PPI in healthcare education. Despite the wealth of research on the benefits, authentic patient involvement in IPE remains a blind spot. We challenge interprofessional educators to involve ‘Experts by Experience’ (EBEs) in all aspects of IPE (curriculum design, delivery, research and evaluation) so that students can learn how to collaborate with the public and patients as equal and valued members of the healthcare team. It is long overdue and is the core purpose of the PULPIT Consortium.
Author Contributions
Ricardo J. O. Ferreira: conceptualization, supervision, writing–original draft, funding acquisition. Matilde Leal: writing–original draft, project administration. Elsa Frazão Mateus: writing–review and editing. Lucija Gosak: writing–review and editing. Matthijs H. Bosveld: conceptualization, writing–review and editing. Cathy C. Kline: conceptualization, writing–review and editing.
The PULPIT Consortium
The members of the PULPIT Consortium include the following: Cristina Baixinho, Adriana Henriques, Andreia Silva Costa, Paulo Costa (Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal); Catarina Lima, Pedro Morgado, Nadine Santos (Escola de Medicina da Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal); Dante Mulder, Sjim Romme (Stichting Mens achter de Patiënt, Eijsden, The Netherlands); Koen Goffings, Bruno Van Koeckhoven (Hogeschool PXL, Hasselt, Belgium); Barbara Kegl, Mateja Lorber (Univerza v Mariboru, Maribor, Slovenia); Danielle Derijcke, Mitchell Silva (EUPATI Belgium, Belgium); Angela Towle (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada); Khadidja Abdallah, Isabelle Huys, Charlotte Verbeke (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium).
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by Erasmus+ (Grant Number: 2023‐1‐PT01‐KA220‐HED‐000165015).
Contributor Information
Ricardo J. O. Ferreira, Email: ferreira.rjo@gmail.com.
the PULPIT Consortium:
Cristina Baixinho, Adriana Henriques, Andreia Silva Costa, Paulo Costa, Catarina Lima, Pedro Morgado, Nadine Santos, Dante Mulder, Sjim Romme, Koen Goffings, Bruno Van Koeckhoven, Barbara Kegl, Mateja Lorber, Danielle Derijcke, Mitchell Silva, Angela Towle, Khadidja Abdallah, Isabelle Huys, and Charlotte Verbeke
Data Availability Statement
The authors have nothing to report.
References
- 1. Nowell L., Keogh B., Laios E., Mckendrick‐Calder L., Lucas Molitor W., and Wilbur K., “Public Participation in Healthcare Students' Education: An Umbrella Review,” Health Expectations: An International Journal of Public Participation in Health Care and Health Policy 27, no. 1 (2024): 13974, 10.1111/hex.13974. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.“Public and Patient Involvement in Interprofessional Education of Undergraduate Healthcare Students,” Erasmus+, accessed September 17, 2024, https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/search/details/2023-1-PT01-KA220-HED-000165015.
- 3. Towle A., Farrell C., Gaines M. E., et al., “The Patient's Voice in Health and Social Care Professional Education: The Vancouver Statement,” International Journal of Health Governance 21, no. 1 (2016): 18–25, 10.1108/ijhg-01-2016-0003. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 4. Bosveld M. H., Romme S., De Nooijer J., Smeets H. W. H., Van Dongen J. J. J., and Van Bokhoven M. A., “Seeing the Patient as a Person in Interprofessional Health Professions Education,” Journal of Interprofessional Care 37, no. 3 (2022): 457–463, 10.1080/13561820.2022.2093843. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Associated Data
This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.
Data Availability Statement
The authors have nothing to report.