Northumbria University hosts European research partners

Academics from four countries travelled to Northumbria University, Newcastle, to discuss the next steps for a three-year education and research patient-safety project.

The University hosted the transnational management group for the SLIPPS project. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, SLIPPS (Shared Learning from Practice to improve Patient Safety) is an innovative project that will draw on the real experiences of health and social care students in work placements across five European countries.

Errors, mishaps and misunderstandings are common and around one in 10 patients suffer avoidable harm. These incidents affect patients, their families, health care organisations, staff and students. SLIPPS is responding to the challenge to improve patient safety education.

Led by Northumbria’s Dr Alison Steven, Associate Professor in Health Professions Education, the team includes Professor Pauline Pearson and DR Val Larkin also from Northumbria and colleagues from six partner universities - Saimaa University of Applied Sciences in Finland; the University of Alicante in Spain; the University of Eastern Finland; the University of Genoa in Italy; Østfold University College in Norway and Lappeenranta University of Technology, in Finland.

Dr Steven said: “These face to face meetings are key to such multinational collaborations and help develop relationships and a shared understanding of the project. This was a very fruitful visit, helping advance the progress of the project and develop new ideas for additional work and collaborations.”

During the visit, Northumbria ran a SLIPPS mini conference with a welcome from Professor Greta Defeyter, Faculty Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Strategic Planning & Engagement), which highlighted the project and saw the partners giving presentations about their contribution and their areas of research expertise.

The conference attracted a range of stakeholders including attendees from a strategic level in North East health care organisations, people from various health and social care professions, teaching and learning and research staff from Northumbria and other universities.

Delegates also enjoyed a tour of Northumbria’s Clinical Skills Centre, where the University displayed its expertise in technology and simulation.

The underlying premise of the three-year project is that students experience a wide range of important learning events linked to patient safety while they are on placement. These experiences and students’ reflections on them are a valuable but often untapped resource both for students and educators and for research. The project aims to collect these experiences and use them as the basis for a range of educational resources.