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Opinion piece

From furniture logistics to person-centred care

Q member Lesley Goodburn shares how storytelling empowers co-produced, continuous improvement in person-centred care.

Discover the power of storytelling as an improvement methodology, the importance of ceding power for true co-production and embedding creative practice into continuous improvement.

Stories are an improvement methodology, but few people recognise them as such.

I have been involved in improvement all of my working life. That journey began while working for a furniture retailer in 1982. It involved improvement projects across stores, call centres, manufacturing, logistics and home delivery. 

In 2008, I started in the NHS providing services at a commissioning support unit then worked in NHS Improvement and NHS England. 

At the moment, I’m working on an improvement project to embed person- and family-centred care via a new care partnership policy.

This work was initiated as a result of direct patient and carer experience via a digital story.

The policy will ensure that anyone in receipt of care can nominate someone as a partner in care who can support them psychologically, emotionally, and physically at any time of the day or night. 

It will be applicable across primary, secondary, tertiary, and social care, as well as outpatient appointments. 

This work was initiated as a result of direct patient and carer experience via a digital story.

This is one of four national policies that have come from two digital stories. 

The importance of partnerships with patients

Relationships are much more important than process and procedures and I’m inspired by people who put people first. 

Working in partnership with patients, carers and people who are in receipt of and who deliver care, is paramount. 

I love to work with people who value person- and family-centred care and who work to improve the experience of care through staff, carer and patient experience.

Co-production is core to all of my improvement projects, however working with different programmes of work across national, regional and local organisations, this ethos of co-production isn’t always the guiding principle. 

Co-production amongst senior leaders often involves a leadership challenge around ceding power and working in partnership.

My lessons learned are about the importance of leadership, culture and learning in improvement projects; having the courage to challenge when the behaviours don’t match the rhetoric.

Storytelling in patient centred care

My passion for storytelling came from my own personal experience of end of life care when, in 2014, my husband Seth was diagnosed with late stage pancreatic cancer.

Our care was not person- or family-centred and despite wanting to die at home, Seth died in an acute hospital because no one listened or responded to what was important to us. 

I shared our experience of care via a film, a play and an educational resource and spent two years outside of the NHS doing improvement work using Seth’s Story.

Seth died in an acute hospital because no one listened or responded to what was important to us. 

When I returned to the NHS in 2018 I was determined to create momentum around stories for improvement and through the heads of the Patient Experience Network. 

I was able to support 150 providers with digital storytelling training, embed stories at the National Quality Board and co-produce a storytelling impact and outcomes framework, as well explore storytelling performance, poetry and other creative arts.

I am now moving to a new role at National Institute for Health and Care Excellence where they are keen to explore stories as a form of evidence in their work.

Creative practice and continuous improvement

In my experience, embedding creative practice into continuous improvement can have a real impact on health and care. 

I’m interested in using stories, performance, dance and poetry to shape improvement projects through initiation, implementation and evaluation.

I joined Q because I wanted the opportunity to meet people who had a passion for improvement and I was lucky to be part of the founding membership of the community.

I have met so many different people through the Q community, from cardiac surgeons to Total Quality Management (TQM) and Sigma Six specialists. 

Often I have met people in roles I wouldn’t routinely work with. As a result of connections made in Q, I have shared my storytelling work across many different settings.

Can you tell us about something you’re currently working on that Q members might be able to get involved with?

Join the Power of Storytelling in Health group

Drawing on my experiences, I’ve set up a Special Interest Group on the power of storytelling in health.

It provides an opportunity for people who want to learn more about using different creative forms of stories to achieve improvement.

Join the group to learn more about this personal and professional work across the last 10 years. 

Sign up for our upcoming event: 12.00 – 13.00, 23 October 2024 | The impact of storytelling in health: creative communication in health and care

Join the Power of Storytelling in Health group
Learn more about Seth’s story Hospice UK
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