Authentic PPIE – the (re)search for authentic engagement

With thanks to Alex Priest for permission to use his artwork. Taken from the ‘Gerblins!’ RPG (C) Alex and Esther Priest 2024

How do you make a map for a place you’ve never been to before? How do you describe to someone what your destination is, when you don’t really know it yourself?

That’s the puzzle I’m wrestling with at the moment.

Yesterday, I travelled up to London for an interview with the Churchill Fellowship. If I’m successful, they will fund me to travel to various places where I can learn from social pedagogy practitioners, with the aim to bringing that learning back to the UK and applying it to PPIE. One of the questions was “Where will you be in five years time?”

Truthfully, I didn’t know. I still don’t.

I talked instead about a cultural shift and challenging the power dynamic so that patients’ knowledge and experience is valued as highly as medics. I said that it wasn’t just me, but I would be contributing to a broader call and desire for change across research and potentially the NHS. I said why wouldn’t we ask patients? Why wouldn’t we want to engage with people who have important knowlegde and experience in this space? I said we’re missing out and I want to even up the power balance in this space.

None of that really mentioned a five year plan (and I completely forgot to mention working towards a PhD?!). But the thing I’m wrestling with is how do you articulate a goal or ambition if you don’t really know what it looks like and no-one has been there before?

In some professions the progression route is fairly straightforward; there’s a route laid out for you and you know that with hard work, diligence and a bit of luck, you can aim towards being a Lead Nurse, or a Research Specialist, or a Deputy Director or whatever. I’m already at the top of my little tree and there is no progression except sideways or out….

To the best of my knowledge there is no map for where I’m going, because no-one has been there before.

I’m trying to forge a new path, through untrodden fields, and that’s hard work. Many years ago my friend Andrea Campanale said that pioneers always find it hardest, because they’re the first ones to tread the soil and flatten the grass: they do the hard work of breaking the ground and making a pathway through, and everyone else who follows afterwards has it a little bit easier. And to be honest, I’ve never had a clear path for my work or career: it’s been a rambling wander as opportunities have arisen and doors have opened and closed. I didn’t know it at the time, but looking back there is a beautiful resonance to the roles I’ve had.

My answer to the ‘five year plan’ is still percolating. It definitely includes further study, but also practical projects in partnership with community members with solid, build-upon-able* examples of good practice in PPIE and community-led research. I may not get the Fellowship, but it has prompted me to look ahead and think about how I’m going to broaden my horizons and build on these ideas to bring them to fruition.

How do you make a map for somewhere you’ve never been to before?

You take one step. And then the next. And see where you end up…likelihood is that your heart/gut/kokoro knows even if your logical barin doesn’t!

*Yes, I did totally make that word up. And yes, I wish I’d thought of this in the interview!!