Thinking outside of the box: presenting patient safety issues creatively

by Sally Giles, Research Fellow in PPI Research and Jackie Nightingale, member of the Greater Manchester PSTRC Research User Group

In 2016 Sally Giles (Research Fellow, Core Theme) took part in the Academy of Creative Minds programme which brought together a dynamic, disparate group of artists, from composers to circus performers, directors to writers. These artists shared their ‘tricks of the trade’ with health researchers, to help them build confidence and expertise in using the creative arts to convey research messages in a more powerful and meaningful way.

As part of the programme Sally was required to work with one or more of the artists to produce a creative way of conveying a research message of her choice.  Sally worked with a circus performer to develop a way of highlighting communication issues in general practice and how this can affect patient safety.  As part of this process Jackie Nightingale (a member of the Greater Manchester PSTRC Research User Group) was asked to get involved in developing this performance.  Jackie played a starring role as the main patient in the scene.  Their full performance was a major part of the NHS R+D North West Annual Research Conference (video above).

Both Jackie and Sally thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would recommend the course to anyone who would like the opportunity to think outside of the box when trying to get research messages across in an enjoyable and innovative way.