TY - JOUR
T1 - Gaining ‘clarity through specificity’ in invited patient participation
T2 - A case study of a multifaceted participatory practice in the Netherlands
AU - Kruithof, Kasper
AU - Wijkmans, Clementine
AU - Ruijter, Lotte
AU - Harting, Janneke
N1 - Funding Information: The authors would like to express our gratitude to all patient participants, professionals and researchers for their valuable contributions. The study was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (grant number 50-50405-98-251). Funding Information: This material is based upon work supported under NSF DMREF Award CBET‐1921946. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Health and Social Care in the Community published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Patient participation is a highly valued principle. Yet, it remains difficult both to achieve it and to assess its added value, as participation is often started without much clarification of what it means or aims to do. In theory, patients may be invited to participate for reasons of democracy, empowerment, knowledge integration and instrumentalism. By making these rationales explicit in a participatory practice in the Netherlands, we aimed to contribute to the long-needed ‘clarity through specificity’ in participation. Apart from the rationales, our analytic framework included dimensions of the participatory process, reflected by questions like ‘Who participates?’, ‘In what?’ and ‘With how much control?’ We used this framework to conduct and analyse semi-structured interviews (n = 51) with patient participants (20), professionals (14) and researchers (17). We found that the participatory practice included all rationales and that the actual manifestation of an intended rationale very much depended on the design of the dimensions of the participatory process. We conclude that invited participation may gain in clarity by making explicit the rationales for participation. If put at the centre of attention, and made the leading factor in the design of the dimensions of the participatory process, explicit rationales may support the realisation of participation in practice and prevent it from resulting in mere window-dressing.
AB - Patient participation is a highly valued principle. Yet, it remains difficult both to achieve it and to assess its added value, as participation is often started without much clarification of what it means or aims to do. In theory, patients may be invited to participate for reasons of democracy, empowerment, knowledge integration and instrumentalism. By making these rationales explicit in a participatory practice in the Netherlands, we aimed to contribute to the long-needed ‘clarity through specificity’ in participation. Apart from the rationales, our analytic framework included dimensions of the participatory process, reflected by questions like ‘Who participates?’, ‘In what?’ and ‘With how much control?’ We used this framework to conduct and analyse semi-structured interviews (n = 51) with patient participants (20), professionals (14) and researchers (17). We found that the participatory practice included all rationales and that the actual manifestation of an intended rationale very much depended on the design of the dimensions of the participatory process. We conclude that invited participation may gain in clarity by making explicit the rationales for participation. If put at the centre of attention, and made the leading factor in the design of the dimensions of the participatory process, explicit rationales may support the realisation of participation in practice and prevent it from resulting in mere window-dressing.
KW - dimensions of participation
KW - invited patient participation
KW - participatory process
KW - rationales for participation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125443745&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13767
DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13767
M3 - Article
C2 - 35235234
SN - 0966-0410
VL - 30
SP - e3233-e3245
JO - Health & social care in the community
JF - Health & social care in the community
IS - 5
ER -