People

People

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The experience of others provides a valuable and rich source of evidence and a useful resource to support people to implement knowledge in practice. To identify people with relevant knowledge and experience you can use social directories, local teams, networks, communities of practice, subject specialists and importantly patients and service users.

Once you have identified an 'expert' there are many tools you can use to capture experiential knowledge, some are listed below. Remember - It is always important to consider the context as well as the experience.

Experts and colleagues

Experts and colleagues may have more experience and/or knowledge than you do of a particular treatment or service and will be able to offer information and advice.

Your personal learning networks are likely to be your first port of call when you have a question. These enable you to connect with your own network(s), to discuss problems, ask questions and gather information. You can ask colleagues locally but online social directories provide a useful source e.g. tools such as:

See the Share section on how to actively develop and manage your own learning networks.

Identify a Community of Practice (CoP)

Is there a CoP relating to this subject? Find out more about CoPs here. Try searching for an online CoP e.g. the Knowledge Hub.

These enable you to connect with your own network(s), to discuss problems, ask questions and gather information.

If you'd like to find out more about using social media, visit Sharing and spreading.

Knowledge capture

Once you have identified individuals there are a range of tools to help you capture their experience.

Case studies and stories capture the important elements of an experience or project that are transferable to other settings. They generally have a clear structure that brings out key qualitative and quantitative information. Download a handout to help capture case studies.
'Knowledge harvesting' is an approach that allows the experience to be captured and documented for others to learn from. One way to do this is through structured interviews.
Peer-assist reviews enable an individual or a group to gain input and insight from experts or others outside the team to reuse. This is generally through face to face meetings.

More information on tools and techniques are available on the Knowledge Management Toolbox Person to person knowledge transfer section.

Sources of case studies

Case studies provide a rich source of knowledge of the experience of others.

Here are some sources you could check for relevant examples:

Healthcare Improvement Scotland case studies, focusing on redesign and quality improvement in Primary Care
NHS England Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership case study library
Patient stories are a powerful source e.g. Care Opinion
Communities of Practice and social networking sites can also be a source of case studies.

Personal networks

Your personal learning networks are likely to be your first port of call when you have a question. See the Share section on how to actively develop and manage these networks.

Librarians and knowledge brokers

Your local knowledge broker or librarian can often help you track down elusive information.