Abstract/Summary

Background Research about service user involvement in research and education focuses on the purpose, the methods, the barriers and the impact of their involvement. Few studies report on the experience of the service users who get involved. This paper reports an exploration of the experience of service users who participated in an interprofessional educational initiative in primary care — the Learning to Improve the Management of Back Pain in the Community (LIMBIC) project. Service users attended workshops with practice teams and assisted them in developing small scale quality improvement projects to improve their provision of care for people with back pain. Objectives To explore the experience of service users involved in the LIMBIC project. Design Using the philosophical and methodological approaches of pragmatism this study analysed data from the wider LIMBIC project and collected primary data through semi structured interviews with service users. Secondary data were reanalysed and integrated with primary data to address the research question. Setting The study was undertaken in the primary health care setting. Participants Patients participated as service users in workshops and quality improvement projects with members from their practice teams. Methods Interviews with service users were transcribed and analysed thematically. Document and thematic analyses of secondary data from the LIMBIC project included focus group transcripts, patient stories, film, emails, meeting notes, a wiki and educational material such as presentations. Results Themes identified through the analyses illustrated the importance, to the service users, of the sense of community, of clear communication, and of influencing change through involvement. A model for co-learning with service users resulted from the analyses. Conclusions The experience of service users can be optimised by planning, preparation and support so that their wealth of expertise can be recognised and utilised. A model for co-learning was developed and is presented in this paper.