Using online feedback in teaching: how can you get started?

Recently I was chatting with Lucy Kirkham at Sheffield Hallam University about the "virtual clinical placements" she was planning for her undergraduate nursing students. These online placements are necessary at the moment because students are not yet allowed back into clinical areas.

One element of the placements will be learning from stories on Care Opinion. I've often heard people wondering how to get started with using Care Opinion in teaching, so I thought it might be handy to jot down some ideas to set the ball rolling. It's a lot simpler than you might think.

There's a link to a fuller document at the bottom of this blog post, but here's an outline of some simple steps:

Step 1: What's the topic?

Almost anything that relates to people's actual experiences of care, and what makes those experiences better or worse, is a good fit for Care Opinion.

Step 2: Find some stories

You, or your students, can often do this without needing a login.

If you do the search, you have a common set of stories to share across your student group. If you prefer, ask your students to search for stories themselves (about particular conditions, procedures or issues). You might be surprised by what they find.

Step 3: Ask your question

Once students have their stories, set them a question or a task.

What matters to people in these stories? Do you see any safety issues? Are the family included in care? Is the team working? Are there improvement opportunities? How would you have reacted here? You'll find plenty more ideas for specific topics in the linked document.

Step 4: Don't forget responses

Students often find the staff responses on Care Opinion as interesting and valuable as the stories. From the responses, students learn about listening, compassion, apology and improvement. Or, conversely, about not really listening, generic responses and non-apologies.

Now over to you

Here's the full guide. I hope you'll find it useful:

Using Care Opinion in teaching - simple ideas for getting started (pdf)

Do let me know how you get on - and what other ideas you have for using Care Opinion in your teaching. Share your thoughts here or send me an email, so we can all learn together!

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