Patient Pathway —
Training activity: 13

Details

Seek feedback from services users and healthcare professionals on a service provision and make recommendations for improvement.

Type

Developmental training activity (DTA)

Evidence requirements

Evidence the activity has been undertaken by the trainee​.

Reflection on the activity at one or more time points after the event including learning from the activity and/or areas of the trainees practice for development.

An action plan to implement learning and/or to address skills or knowledge gaps identified.

Reflective practice guidance

The guidance below is provided to support reflection at different time points, providing you with questions to aid you to reflect for this training activity. They are provided for guidance and should not be considered as a mandatory checklist. Trainees should not be expected to provide answers to each of the guidance questions listed.

Before action

What are the intended outcomes of the training activity?

• Have you reviewed the specific learning outcomes to ensure you are prepared to communicate clearly and effectively with diverse stakeholders to both inform and educate them on service provision?
• How do you plan to demonstrate your ability to critically appraise developments and map their implementation while balancing financial and operational factors alongside clinical need?
• What essential knowledge have you identified as necessary regarding the current service pathway and existing feedback mechanisms before you begin your engagement?

What do you anticipate you will learn from the experience?

• What specific insights do you hope to gain regarding the logistical and ethical challenges of gathering sensitive feedback from service users?
• In what ways do you anticipate this activity will improve your understanding of how financial and operational constraints directly influence the feasibility of clinical service improvements?

What actions will you take in preparation for the experience?

• What preparatory discussions have you planned with your Training Officer or service lead to ensure your proposed feedback methods align with departmental policies and patient confidentiality?
• Which resources, such as previous service audits or stakeholder engagement templates, have you selected to review to ensure your appraisal is robust and evidence-based?
• How have you identified your feelings about embarking on this task, particularly regarding the responsibility of representing the service to external stakeholders?

In action

What are you doing?

• How are you currently approaching your interactions with stakeholders, and why have you chosen this specific communication style to ensure they feel informed and educated?
• What real-time decisions are you making regarding which stakeholder concerns are most critical to highlight for the mapping of the service implementation?
• Which aspects of facilitating these discussions feel intuitive to you, and which—such as addressing financial barriers—require more conscious, focused effort?

How are you progressing with the activity?

• How effective are your current engagement strategies in eliciting actionable insights from both healthcare professionals and service users?
• What challenges are you facing in this moment—such as navigating differing professional opinions or conflicting stakeholder needs—and what are you learning as these dynamics unfold?
• In what ways are you connecting this live feedback to your existing knowledge of the clinical care pathway and its operational limitations?

How are you adapting to the situation?

• Are there alternative ways to frame your recommendations that you should consider mid-discussion to ensure the technical or financial aspects are clearer for a non-specialist audience?
• What immediate support or guidance do you need from a senior colleague right now to resolve a complex query regarding service change?
• How are you ensuring that your contributions and recommendations remain strictly within your professional scope of practice while proposing service improvements?

On action

What did you notice?

• How would you summarise the key themes emerging from the stakeholder feedback, specifically regarding the areas identified for service improvement?
• What specific clinical or operational details did you notice were most significant in influencing your final implementation map?

What did you learn from the activity?

• What specific knowledge or skills did you develop regarding the ability to critically appraise service developments within a multidisciplinary context?
• In what ways did your real-time adjustments—such as tailoring your language during a stakeholder meeting—influence the final quality and consensus of your recommendations?
• How does the experience of building this integrated service narrative relate to the requirements for your future post-programme practice as a Clinical Scientist?

What will you take from the experience moving forward?

• What specific areas for continued development in stakeholder management or financial appraisal have you identified as a result of this activity?
• How can you apply the learning from this feedback exercise (e.g., more effective multidisciplinary communication) to your routine practice within the department?
• What are the specific ‘next steps’ you will now take, such as presenting your findings to a service board or quality committee, to support the assimilation of what you have learned?

Beyond action

Have you revisited the experiences?

• How have you re-evaluated your initial recommendations in light of subsequent learning about the nuances of departmental change and institutional constraints?
• Comparing this activity with your Observed Training Activities (OTAs), what specific observable behaviours in professional storytelling and stakeholder liaison have you now fully assimilated?
• In what ways have discussions with peers regarding your service improvement strategies changed your view on how to navigate complex organisational structures?

How have these experiences impacted upon your current practice?

• How has this service delivery activity supported your development in wider areas, such as writing interpretative reports or providing technical advice to the MDT?
• In what ways has the cumulative learning from this liaison supported your preparation for ‘in-person’ assessments, such as Observed Communication Events (OCE) where you must justify service decisions?

How might these experiences contribute towards your future practice?

• What transferable skills in strategic planning and mapping implementation have you developed that will help you lead future service improvements or innovations?
• How will your understanding of the stakeholder perspective learned here guide your future practice as new clinical technologies become integrated into patient pathways?

Relevant learning outcomes

#	Outcome
# 2	Outcome Communicate clearly and effectively with a range of stakeholders to inform and educate.
# 7	Outcome Critically appraise developments and map implementation in a clinical service, considering the financial and operational factors alongside clinical need.