Person centred approaches reflect a commitment to developing deep understandings of others as thinking and feeling beings with the potential to develop and grow. As such person centred practice is predicated on the value of personhood. It requires a way of working that focuses on individual beliefs, values, wants, needs and deisres and that is underpinned by flexibility, mutuality, respect and care.

The journey to person centeredness thus requires critical exploration of current practices that call on practitioners to scrutinise themselves and the environment in which they work to identify both facilitative and inhibiting factors to person centred working.

This presentation will relate the use of particular exploratory and learning strategies to the goal of person centeredness including: Practice development -- as an emancipatory framework for the management of change Action learning -- as a learning framework for the exploration of both individual and shared practices Reflective practice -- as a learning framework for learning in and from practice.

Each of these strategies will be critiqued in the light of their use in a range of project work within the Royal Hospitals Trust. Data drawn from ongoing project work will be presented.

Back to Knowing and Acting -- A Strategic Practitioner Focused Approach to Nursing Research and Practice Development
Back to Evidence-Based Nursing: Strategies for Improving Practice
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 21, 2004