Becoming a person-centred facilitator of learning in a hospital setting: Findings from a participatory action-oriented study with hospital-based educators

Aim: Investigate the experience of hospital-based educators becoming person-centred facilitators of learning.

Background: Hospital-based educators working with staff are not well-prepared for their role. No person-centred pedagogical approaches exist specifically for use in hospital settings. Educators are positioned to advance person-centredness in clinical practice. To do so they need knowledge and skills in person-centred approaches. Little is known about how educators transform from teacher-centred approaches to person-centred facilitation. This study investigated how educators learn about and use person-centred principles to acquire educational theory and become person-centred facilitators.

Design: Participatory, action-oriented research METHODS: Guided by four person-centred principles blending relational inquiry and practice development, 10 educators participated in group and individual sessions over 18 months. Data were analyzed using relational inquiry and critical creative hermeneutics.

Results: Becoming person-centred facilitators was enabled through three principles: starting with self, developing community and belonging and bumping against culture and inviting transformation. Participants became person-centred facilitators through intrapersonal, interpersonal and contextual transformations during moments of discovery, reconciliation and action. Competence developed by experiencing and using four methodological principles of taking a relational stance; using active learning to learn in and from practice; being collaborative, inclusive and participatory; and linking creativity with cognition. This model resulted in improved trust, strengthened relationships and more meaningful and robust learning outcomes.

Conclusions: Hospital-based educators can be enabled to become person-centred facilitators by providing them with person-centred learning opportunities. The four methodological principles, as a model for person-centred education, provided an effective preparation and orientation to educational and person-centred theory.