Students' perspectives from co-designed, lived experience eating disorders education: A qualitative inquiry

Background

There is an intricate connection between eating disorders and trauma. Despite this, traditional eating disorders education for health professions has not taken a trauma-informed approach.

Aim

We aimed to explore the reflections of graduate entry dietetic and undergraduate nursing students who participated in a trauma-informed, co-designed education innovation that focussed on an individual's storied lived experience.

Methods

We applied an interpretive lens in this qualitative inquiry-based study. Graduate entry dietetic and undergraduate nursing students participated in this study. The lived experience, co-designed workshops (n = 35) were embedded in the curricula with an optional follow-up discussion with the lived experience and academic educators. Students were asked to write their key reflections on a sticky note at the end of the workshop. Thematic analysis of the student reflections was completed by the research team including the lived experience educator and academics.

Results

A total of 442 sticky notes were collected; 145 from the dietetic and 297 from the nursing students. Analysis of the dietetic and nursing students' reflections generated six themes: 1) Do no harm, 2) Seeing beyond the diagnosis, 3) Language matters, 4) Humanise the relationship, 5) Recovery in the context of healing, and 6) Significance of hope. There was consistency across the reflections for the two different disciplines.

Conclusions

Co-designed lived experience eating disorders education that honours the living experiences and complexities of eating disorders can deepen health profession students' understandings of how they can work with, rather than against, people living with and recovering from eating disorders through a trauma-informed approach.