Involving people and next of kin as patient partners in research can enhance research quality. Training researchers seems to be an effective way to support meaningful involvement of patient partners. Although guidance is increasingly available, Danish researchers lack support for implementing patient partner involvement. Providing a dedicated training programme for researchers could help them establish meaningful partnerships with patient partners. This study aimed to develop and evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a training programme designed to assist researchers in involving patient partners. The training programme was co-produced by researchers and patient partners, who are referred to as patient partner teachers. The development and feasibility phases were guided by the Medical Research Council’s framework for developing complex interventions and structured according to the six parameters of the didactic relationship model: ‘prerequisites for learning’, ‘learning goals’, ‘settings and conditions’, ‘learning process’, ‘educational content’, and ‘evaluation of learning’. Feasibility and acceptability were assessed through questionnaires completed by participants before, during, and after the training programme. The didactic relationship model provided a strong pedagogical basis for developing a training programme. The co-production process was effectively managed, with patient partner teachers reporting feeling involved throughout the project, especially in communication and partnership within the development team. A total of 32 participants, including researchers with various job titles, attended the training. Most participants indicated they had extensive research experience but limited knowledge of and confidence in involving patient partners. The training programme – which was customised to meet the needs of diverse participants and delivered in small groups – proved beneficial, boosting their confidence. Overall, the participants expressed satisfaction with the programme and enthusiasm for the patient partner teachers, and 85% would recommend the training to a colleague. This training programme was feasible and addressed participants’ needs. The co-production process was essential for both developing and delivering the training. Future research should examine additional factors that encourage meaningful involvement of patient partners in the research process. Including patients and next of kin as research partners can improve the results and make them more relevant to the people they are meant to help. Research conducted with patients and next of kin as patient partners can improve the quality and relevance of research results. Training researchers in this partnership can make the involvement more effective. But researchers do not usually get this kind of training as standard. Training can help researchers meaningfully involve patients and relatives in their projects. This study aimed to develop training and test whether researchers who got the training thought it worked. Two patient partners were a part of developing and delivering the training as patient partner teachers. They reported feeling included in the development process and expressed high satisfaction with communication and teamwork. A total of 32 researchers with different areas of work took part in the training. They filled in questionnaires before, during, and after the training to share their views. Although most researchers had more than 10 years of research experience, they initially reported less experience and confidence about including patients and next of kin in their work. Overall, the researchers who did the training thought it was helpful and liked having the patient partner teachers doing some of the teaching. Inviting a small group of researchers from different backgrounds to take part of the training worked well. Most said they would recommend the training to others. Future research should investigate how other things can help researchers to involve patient partners meaningfully. Two patient partners and teachers co-produced the training programme with researchers. One patient partner co-authored this study.
Tscherning et al. (Sat,) studied this question.