The Implementation of a Model of Person-Centred Practice In Older ...

The implementation of a model of person-centred practice in older person settings
rewarding as there is a lot to be learnt about planning and development and seeing
a programme day through is very rewarding.” (Internal Facilitator Reflection).
The importance of the role of the role of the NMPDU facilitators is a key
consideration and learning from this programme. This is one of the first large-scale
practice development programmes where the lead facilitators were not involved in
the operationalisation of the methodology in practice, but instead, required local
facilitation groups to do this. The NMPDU facilitators, working in partnership with the
internal facilitators has been proven to be a highly effective model and one that
should be replicated in other development programmes. NMPDU facilitators were
project managing complex packages of development work and discussed how
‘emotional hard’ this way of working was for them. It demanded a different values and
skills set. Central to this was the nature of the relationship they built with internal
facilitators and if the degree to which they were experienced as credible. Those
facilitators that were able to do this effectively achieved more rapid progress. Thus
this way of working was exposing for NMPDU staff. Overall, this practice
development programme has demonstrated the contribution that the NMPDU as an
external facilitation resource can make to service development and enable deeper
engagement and more direct benefits to be achieved. It has also shown that
changing to this way of working can produce more visible changes and outcomes in
practice and service delivery. This can only strengthen the NMPDUs case for their
role in the HSE for the future, should they decide to nurture an emancipatory practice
development approach. It does also raise the question that the NMPDU may wish
and even need to review how it organises, sets up and delivers other practice
development initiatives that are of a more short term and teaching/study day
approach (Dewing 2009).
The programme utilised a cooperative inquiry methodology. Whilst the full potential
of this methodology was not realised due to the learning and development needs of
the facilitation team and the embargo, the quality of the data collection and its
collaborative analysis by the facilitation team demonstrates the potential of enabling
groups of staff, with facilitation to be actively involved in collecting and analysing
evidence/data and developing their own action plans. Should this experience be
replicated in other programmes then it could be argued that this would not just result
in a changed appreciation of knowledge transfer, a culture change in individual
practice settings, but also a change in the ‘relationship-culture’ between operational
staff and managers. This is currently being further tested in a large scale practice
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