More than a method: trusting relationships, productive tensions, and two-way learning as mechanisms of authentic co-production

Abstract

Background

Knowledge mobilisation requires the effective elicitation and blending of different types of knowledge or ways of knowing, to produce hybrid knowledge outputs that are valuable to both knowledge producers (researchers) and knowledge users (health care stakeholders). Patients and service users are a neglected user group, and there is a need for transparent reporting and critical review of methods used to co-produce knowledge with patients. This study aimed to explore the potential of participatory codesign methods as a mechanism of supporting knowledge sharing, and to evaluate this from the perspective of both researchers and patients.

Methods

A knowledge mobilisation research project using participatory codesign workshops to explore patient involvement in using health data to improve services. To evaluate involvement in the project, multiple qualitative data sources were collected throughout, including a survey informed by the Generic Learning Outcomes framework, an evaluation focus group, and field notes. Analysis was a collective dialogic reflection on project processes and impacts, including comparing and contrasting the key issues from the researcher and contributor perspectives.

Results

Authentic involvement was seen as the result of “space to talk” and “space to change”. "Space to talk" refers to creating space for shared dialogue, including space for tension and disagreement, and recognising contributor and researcher expertise as equally valuable to the discussion. ‘Space to change’ refers to space to adapt in response to contributor feedback. These were partly facilitated by the use of codesign methods which emphasise visual and iterative working, but contributors emphasised that relational openness was more crucial, and that this needed to apply to the study overall (specifically, how contributors were reimbursed as a demonstration of how their input was valued) to build trust, not just to processes within the workshops.

Conclusions

Specific methods used within involvement are only one component of effective involvement practice. The relationship between researcher and contributors, and particularly researcher willingness to change their approach in response to feedback, were considered most important by contributors. Productive tension was emphasised as a key mechanism in leading to genuinely hybrid outputs that combined contributor insight and experience with academic knowledge and understanding.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40900-021-00262-5.

Plain English summary

We conducted a study exploring how patients could be involved in improving services using health data. This paper reports on the evaluation of that study. We collected different kinds of feedback throughout, including a survey of impacts on contributors, a focus group to reflect on what worked well and what could be done better, and also sharing thoughts throughout the study itself. We analysed this feedback together, to make sure that both contributor and researcher perspectives were considered equally.

We found that the successful co-production that happened during the study was the result of having ‘space to talk’ and ‘space to change’. Space to talk that meant we all shared our views and recognised each other as experts bringing equally important knowledge. Space to change meant that we acted on the knowledge shared, to change both the study and to change how we worked together.

We found that these themes occurred at multiple levels. They were partly achieved by the specific participatory codesign methods that were used, but equally or perhaps more important was the trusting relationship between the researcher and contributors, including openness to explore tensions. The wider systems that supported involvement, in this case the financial reimbursement for contributor time, were also as important to this as the things that happened within the study itself.

We recommend that future work creates ‘space to talk’ and ‘space to change’, and reports openly on how both contributors and researchers are affected by this.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40900-021-00262-5.