The Ida Institue takes a collaborative approach to developing tools and resources that can be used by clinicians around the world to improve person-centred care. Their Managing Director Lise Lotte Bundesen tells us about their newest project, Inspired by Ida, and how you can get involved.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Ida Institute, could you give us a quick introduction to the organisation?
The mission of the Ida Institute is to develop and integrate person-centred care in hearing rehabilitation. Established in 2007 with a grant from the Oticon Foundation, we have a community of 13,000 members worldwide and work with a broad network of hearing care professionals, academics and people with hearing loss to develop tools and materials that support a person-centred approach to hearing care. All resources are available for free on the Ida Institute’s website and we also provide courses in person-centred care through our eLearning platform, the Ida Learning Hall.
What prompted the development of the Inspired by Ida programme?
The overall goal of this programme is to spread the reach of person-centred care and help hearing care professionals implement a person-centred approach in their work.
As technology advances and routes to accessing medical and assistive devices change, hearing care professionals are asking themselves: “What is my role as a hearing care professional? Where am I adding value?” I believe the answer is: person-centred care. It’s about listening to people in order to understand their individual needs and preferences, and how their communication problems are affecting their lifestyle and relationships, and then matching care and recommendations that will work best for them. This is an approach that technology cannot replace. Inspired by Ida enables hearing care professionals to deliver this type of care and display the value they offer as the industry evolves.
What does the programme consist of?
Inspired by Ida is a programme that allows you to upgrade your counselling skills and make use of the Inspired label to promote your practice.
To qualify for the label, hearing care professionals must take two free courses in the Ida Learning Hall on how to apply person-centred methods and tools. We also ask them to sign a code of ethics stating their commitment to applying a number of core principles of person-centred care in their daily practice. Clinics can also join the programme and receive the special Inspired label for clinics. This requires that at least 80% of the clinic staff has completed the required courses – including managers and front-desk staff.
This issue has a focus on ‘professional health’ how do you feel this programme fits in with this idea? Particularly in terms of continuing professional development.
Inspired by Ida provides an opportunity for hearing care professionals to either learn new counselling methods or upgrade their existing person-centred skills.
Most hearing care professionals consider themselves to be person-centred already – in fact, I have yet to meet a hearing care professional who would not describe themselves as person-centred. However, we know from our many years of filming encounters between hearing care professionals and patients for our ethnographic video collection that in many situations the patient perspective is often not the primary focus.
Inspired by Ida motivates and empowers hearing care professionals to engage people in their own care. This leads to a number of well-documented benefits, including better outcomes and increased patient satisfaction. Surveys conducted among Ida community members also indicate that professionals who have used our methods and tools in their practice experience a higher degree of job-satisfaction.
So in terms of professional development, Inspired by Ida offers a way for professionals to enhance their counselling skills and boost their practice at the same time.
What are the benefits of completing the programme for either individuals or organisations?
The Inspired label allows you to signal your dedication to high quality, personalised hearing care. The online label can be easily shared across various digital platforms: you can share it via social media, on your website or in your email signature. For the individual hearing care professional, this is a way for them to highlight their person-centred skills and upgrade their professional profile.
Clinics also get access to a dedicated marketing kit with ideas for how to use the label in their branding and as a way of differentiating themselves by promoting their commitment to person-centred care.
How do people find out more and register their interest? Information about the initiative is available from our website at Idainstitute.com/inspired. You are also welcome to contact our team at inspired@idainstitute.dk
