I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who. Rudyard Kipling. (Kipling 1902)
The impetus for this book was to document some of the Patient Voices projects that have taken place since the beginning of the programme, to share the experiences and learning from those projects and to explain the history and development of the programme.
In order to understand the projects described in Parts II–VI, there needs to be an understanding of, to use Kipling’s “six good serving men and true”, what the Patient Voices Programme is, why it was set up, when it came to be, how it works, where it operates and who created it.
Explaining the genesis, nature, purpose and benefits of the Patient Voices Programme has always been a complex task, despite the delivery of many presentations and keynotes (please see www.patientvoices.org.uk/present.htm), completion of research studies (Hardy 2007, 2016), articles and publications in journals (please see www.patientvoices.org.uk/articles.htm and www.patientvoices.org.uk/papers.htm), contributions to books on digital storytelling (Hardy and Sumner 2010, 2014, 2017; Hardy 2017; Jamissen et al. 2017; Dunford and Jenkins 2017) and the production of a documentary film (Patient Voices et al. 2017).
In this first part, Hardy and Sumner address these questions as they take us through the context and conception of Patient Voices, its establishment and consolidation, development and evolution, and methodology and approach.
Chapter 1 “The Journey Begins” explains the initial inspiration for the Patient Voices programme and the way in which technical, philosophical and educational factors and movements influenced early work.
Chapter 2 “Pilgrims’ Progress” covers the period from 2004 to 2010, when the programme developed and refined its processes and approaches, coming to situate itself firmly with the Classical Digital Storytelling model created by StoryCenter.
From 2010 to 2017, covered in Chap. 3 “To the Far Horizon”, the programme began to identify broad themes within its work and to look at more deeply and employ more directly the power of the process—rather than the product—to effect change in attitudes amongst healthcare staff.
Finally, Chap. 4 “The Patient Voices Approach” looks at the derivation of the approach, what happens within a Patient Voices workshop, and the processes that have been developed by the programme to provide appropriate consent and release of stories, protection of intellectual property and effective distribution of the stories.
References
Dunford, M., & Jenkins, T. (2017). Digital storytelling: Form and content. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-59152-4.
Hardy, P. (2007). An investigation into the application of the Patient Voices digital stories in healthcare education: Quality of learning, policy impact and practice-based value. MSc dissertation, University of Ulster, Belfast.
Hardy, P. (2017). Physician, know thyself: Using digital storytelling to promote reflection in medical education. In Y. Nordkvelle, G. Jamissen, P. Hardy, & H. M. Pleasants (Eds.), Digital storytelling in higher education: International perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hardy, P., & Sumner, T. (2010). Humanizing healthcare: A conversation with Pip Hardy and Tony Sumner, Pilgrim Projects/Patient Voices. In J. Lambert (Ed.), Digital storytelling: Capturing lives, creating community (3rd ed., pp. 143–156). Berkeley, CA: Digital Diner Press.
Hardy, P., & Sumner, T. (2014). Our stories, ourselves: Exploring identities, sharing experiences and building relationships through Patient Voices. In H. Pleasants & D. Salter (Eds.), Community-based multi-literacies and digital media projects: Questioning assumptions and exploring realities. New York: Peter Lang.
Hardy, P., & Sumner, T. (2017). Digital storytelling with users and survivors of the UK mental health system. In M. Dunford & T. Jenkins (Eds.), Story, form and content in digital storytelling: Telling tales. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hardy, V. P. (2016). Telling tales: The development and impact of digital stories and digital storytelling in healthcare. Doctoral thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester.
Jamissen, G., Hardy, P., Nordkvelle, Y., & Pleasants, H. (2017). Digital storytelling in higher education. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-51058-3.
Patient Voices, Stamm, R., & Alexandra, D. (2017). Patient Voices: Three days in Cambridge. Pilgrim Projects. www.patientvoices.org.uk/pvthedoc.htm
