Clarifying the degrees, modes, and muddles of "meaningful" patient engagement in health services planning and designing.

Abstract

Patient engagement has become the expectation around the world in an array of healthcare activities. There is an emerging need to improve the mechanisms and approaches to engaging patients. Previous research has found variation in the terms used to describe PE, which may inhibit the usefulness and impact of tools developed to improve PE. The objective of this review was to investigate how studies have conceptualized and differentiated between degrees of engagement in planning and designing of health services. This review conducted a database search for studies on PE in planning and designing health services, which were analyzed using the qualitative meta-synthesis approach. The descriptive characteristics and the terms used to depict PE were analyzed in 18 studies. A synthesis for the following terms are provided: collaboration, cooperation, co-production, active involvement, partnership, and consumer and peer leadership. Similarities and differences between these terms and with frameworks of engagement are discussed. This review found various conceptualizations of terms that depict meaningful PE that practitioners can use to develop their own conceptualizations match the context of an activity. Joint training between patients and healthcare professionals may address variations in the language, goals, and purposes of engagement.