NUI Galway Hosts Education Day for Public and Patient Involvement to Inform Healthcare Research
NUI Galway will host ‘EMPOWER’, an information and education day for the public, with a series of free workshops introducing ‘Public and Patient Involvement’ and developing the skills required to partner with researchers to guide and influence their work. All members of the public with an interest in health and social care research who would like to find out more are welcome to attend on Saturday, 6 October.
The Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) Ignite Programme aims to bring about a culture change in how healthcare research is conducted across NUI Galway. It supports health and social care researchers to involve members of the public in meaningful ways across the full research cycle and connects the public, patient and community organisations to researchers who are seeking PPI partners. This means that people who are likely to be using new treatments are directly involved in and shape the decisions made to produce them.
The EMPOWER workshops will be of interest to people who have ever wondered; how health research works: who comes up with ideas for research: and how does research bring about change – or does it?
Professor Sean Dinneen, Director of PPI Ignite at NUI Galway, said: “We are very keen to develop a public community who are interested in guiding and influencing researchers. Never has it been more important that the public voice and the voice of patients is clearly heard. These workshops will help those who attend to be able to articulate their opinions and make an impact on health research, practice and policy.
The workshops, some of which will be led by both researchers and members of the public, will feature the following topics:
Who, me? How each of us can make a difference to research – introduces research and Public and Patient Involvement.
Clinical trials of new treatments – when can we believe the results? – looks at how to know what to believe about new health treatments.
Deciding who gets the (research) money: how the public can have their say.
Speaking up: advocacy training – develop your public speaking skills.
Telling it as it is: communicating clearly – addresses a particular bug-bear for many, the importance of eliminating jargon and communicating in plain English.
Some of the workshops will be of particular interest to people who have already been involved in Public and Patient Involvement, to further develop these skills, and other workshops are for people who have no previous experience.
The event is funded by the Health Research Board. The workshops are free and will run from 10am-4pm on Saturday, 6 October in the Institute for Lifecourse and Society (ILAS) building, North Campus, and people are welcome to attend all or some of the workshops.
Register on www.eventbrite.ie (search for EMPOWER) or email ppi@nuigalway.ie.
For more information, contact Bláthín Casey at ppi@nuigalway.ie or 091 492731. Follow on Twitter @PPI_NUIG or visit www.nuigalway.ie/ppi.
