[The role of patients in clinical and associative research: developments and challenges]

In 2002, the Kouchner law made it possible to position patients as healthcare players. In particular, it recognizes the existence of experiential knowledge, giving them a role as experts in their illnesses. In this article, we'll look at how this expertise is put to good use in clinical research, and then in associative research. We will show that, while patient involvement in research has never been so important, there is still a long way to go.

Speculum self-insertion: an alternative method for gynaecological examination?

BACKGROUND

Speculum examination is an intrusive practice in the clinical care of women. It requires privacy and patients may experience discomfort or anxiety related to the procedure, which can result in delays or avoidance of necessary healthcare. Speculum self-insertion originated in the United States in the 1970s as part of the self-help movement. However, this clinical practice is largely unknown among healthcare providers and has rarely been assessed.

AIM

This study investigates the women's views and healthcare providers' experiences of the self-insertion method.

METHOD

A qualitative study was conducted between December 2021 and October 2022, including fieldwork combining semi-structured interviews (10 women) and focus groups associated with individual interviews of 13 healthcare providers. The data collected were independently coded by 2 authors and analysed using an inductive approach and grounded theory method.

RESULTS

Speculum self-insertion was described as a way to decrease discomfort and facilitate speculum insertion. Self-insertion was proposed as a means of allowing women to participate in the examination, reducing their vulnerability against power imbalances in the doctor-patient relationship. Both patients and healthcare providers have reported that speculum self-insertion is a method that can contribute to improving trust and communication during the examination.

CONCLUSION

The practice of speculum self-insertion during the consultation is an alternative to traditional practitioner insertion and may be offered to all women by any practitioner who wishes to use this technique.

Assessing patient partnership among emergency departments in France: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to describe the use of patient partnership, as defined by the Montreal Model, in emergency departments (EDs) in France and report the perception of patient partnership from both the practitioner and patient perspectives.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted between July 2020 and October 2020. First, a survey was sent to 146 heads of EDs in both teaching hospitals and non-teaching hospitals in France to assess the current practices in terms of patient partnership in service organization, research, and teaching. The perceived barriers and facilitators of the implementation of such an approach were also recorded. Then, semi-structured telephone interviews were carried out with patients involved in a service re-organization project.

RESULTS

A total of 48 answers (response rate 32.9%) to the survey were received; 33.3% of respondents involved patients in projects relating to service re-organization, 20.8% involved patients in teaching projects, and 4.2% in research projects. Overall, 60.4% of the respondents were willing to involve patients in re-organization or teaching projects. The main barriers mentioned for establishing patient partnership were difficulties regarding patient recruitment and lack of time. The main advantages mentioned were the improvement in patient/caregiver relationship and new ideas to improve healthcare. When interviewed, patients mentioned the desire to improve healthcare and the necessity to involve people with different profiles and backgrounds. A too important personal commitment was the most frequently raised barrier to their engagement. All the patients recognized their positive role, and more generally, the positive role of patient engagement in service re-organization.

CONCLUSION

Although this preliminary study indicates a rather positive perception of patient partnership among heads of EDs in France and partner patients, this approach is still not widely applied in practice.

Nomenclature of real patients in health professional education by role and engagement: a narrative literature review

Research problem

Real patients living with a disease and engaged in the education of healthcare professionals are referred to by different terms. To address this, A.Towle proposed a draft taxonomy.

Objective

Our objective is to extract from the literature the definitions given for the following terms: (1) patient educator, (2) patient instructor, (3) patient mentor, (4) partner patient, (5) patient teacher, (6) Volunteer Patient in order to clearly identify their roles and level of engagement.

Methods

The literature search was carried out in Medline, CINAHL, PsychInfo and Eric by adding medical education or healthcare professional to our previously identified keywords to ensure that it is indeed literature dealing with real patients' involvement in the education of healthcare professionals.

Results

Certain terms refer to real and simulated patients. Roles are more or less well described but may refer to multiple terms. The notion of engagement is discussed, but not specifically.

Conclusion

Explicitly defining the terms used according to the task descriptions and level of engagement would help contribute to Towle's taxonomy. Real patients would thus feel more legitimately involved in health professional education.

Democracia sanitária: avanços e resistências no processo de participação dos pacientes/usuários no sistema de saúde francês

Resumo A discussão a respeito dos avanços dos cuidados em saúde passa pela questão da participação dos pacientes/usuários nas decisões a respeito de seu tratamento, dos seus direitos e de sua influência nas políticas públicas de saúde. O objetivo do presente artigo é fazer um breve histórico sobre a participação dos pacientes/usuários no sistema de saúde francês e apontar as principais conquistas e dificuldades presentes na atualidade. O artigo utiliza dados de arquivos oficiais, documentos produzidos por associações de pacientes e artigos de revistas especializadas. Na França, a participação dos pacientes faz parte de um cenário complexo que pode ser reconhecido no termo “Democracia Sanitária”, que surge a partir da aproximação do campo da saúde e da política, propondo o questionamento das relações de poder estruturadas entre os atores e da possibilidade de um debate entre ciência e democracia. A epidemia da aids na década de 80 acompanhada de vários escândalos sanitários propiciou uma ruptura no modelo tradicional de estruturação das relações no campo da saúde produzindo uma mudança do status do paciente, de seu papel e de sua própria identidade através do fortalecimento do movimento associativo.

[Health care safety: The discrepancies between experience and degree of satisfaction of hospitalized patients observed in interviews performed by user representatives]

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this article is to present the results of a qualitative survey conducted by user representatives (URs) focusing on the health care safety experience of hospitalized patients. The authors wished to identify factors associated with safety of care and, more specifically, with the possibly ominous medical events reported by patients.

METHODS

After being trained with these objectives in mind, eight URs conducted semi-directive interviews with fourteen patients hospitalized in eleven separate hospital units in nine different hospitals.

RESULTS

Eight types of factors consisting in 30 contributing factors liable to be reported by patients were identified: 1) factors related to patients' basic needs; 2) personalization of care; 3) professional factors; 4) organizational factors; 5) communication factors; 6) caregiver responsiveness; 7) infectious risks; 8) continuity of care. Patients' overall feelings about their hospitalization remained excellent notwithstanding more tempered, even negative experiences.

CONCLUSION

This paradoxical result shows that the patients' actual experience is far more instructive than their degree of satisfaction. In light of this study, the acceptability of this type of research (i.e. research conducted by URs) is excellent and it also appears highly feasible, whatever the limitations imposed by organizational considerations.

[Exercise on prescription: a systematic review and socio-ecological perspectives]

OBJECTIVE

This article presents a systematic review (2009-2018) of the literature in social sciences and public health concerning exercise on prescription. The review is oriented towards studies about the beneficiaries of these prescriptions and seeks to question the use of socio-ecological indicators.

METHOD

The interrogation of bibliographic databases made it possible to retain 28 papers taking into account the following inclusion criteria: (1) publication in a peer-reviewed journal; (2) prescription of physical activity by a health professional; (3) adult beneficiaries; (4) prescription for a supervised physical activity program; (5) physical activity program of at least one month; (6) socio-demographic or psychosocial indicators complementary to age and sex only.

RESULTS

The prescription of physical activity refers to various interventions in terms of target audiences, modalities of supervision, duration of care or type of monitoring at the end of the program. The studies are mainly related to the measurement of the physical activity level during and/or after the intervention. They mobilize essentially individual indicators and analyze few other determinants from a socio-ecological perspective.

CONCLUSION

Taking into account the different types and levels of determinants, in a multidimensional approach, would make it possible to identify the social, relational and territorial factors, as well as their respective weight and their links, to refine the health promotion actions and to favor levers of access to less sedentary lifestyles and lasting changes in everyday practices.