Uncertainty, trust and voluntariness. Key elements of teaching and learning participatory health research in nursing science in the university context

Participatory Health Research (PHR) has a longstanding tradition in nursing science; however, we know little about how PHR can be taught to prospective nursing scientists at the university level. In this paper, we describe and reflect on our experiences with an elective course in PHR as two lecturers and seven students in the Master of Nursing Science at the University of Vienna. All the students combined their job as nursing professionals with their master’s course load. In the first course block, the students expressed a need to understand how to enable participation in their professional lives; therefore, in order to meet this need, we decided to undertake a joint PHR project in class. Our reflections on the PHR process during and after the course had officially ended yielded the following insights (1) In the beginning, coping with the uncertainty of the process was challenging, and we all had to leave our comfort zones. Doing PHR requires dealing with new frameworks for thinking as well as balancing power between lecturers and students. (2) Key elements of teaching and learning PHR in nursing science encompass trustful relationships, voluntariness, and appreciative communication, especially in hierarchical organizations, such as universities. We conclude that, whilst undertaking a PHR project in a university course produces uncertainty initially, if the key elements discussed above are taken into consideration, the approach is powerful in conveying the essence of PHR in nursing science.