Interdisciplinary research featured in report on human rights-based approaches in health and social care in Scotland

February 2023

The Health and Social Care ALLIANCE Scotland has published a report, ‘The Opportunity is Now -Human Rights in Health and Social Care: Where we’ve been and the journey ahead’. Dr Elaine Webster participated as an interviewee and contributed to one of the report’s case studies, on ‘Human rights in healthcare education.’

The case study is based on a project undertaken by Dr Elaine Webster in collaboration with health education academics, social science academics with expertise in co-produced research, and educational designers and technologists at the University of the Highlands and Islands. This project builds on an earlier pilot study, funded by the Scottish Crucible Interdisciplinary Project Fund.

The ongoing project, funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust and NHS Highland, has entailed research with nursing students and others with experience of healthcare and education. The project, entitled ‘DESNEHRA – Dignity Engagement Space using a Human Rights-based Approach’ built on data collection in a series of workshops to develop and test an online learning space. Dignispace focuses understanding the concept of dignity through a human rights lens and has been designed to help health and social care professionals learn more about the concept and to confidently promote and advocate dignity in practice.

The case study overview in the ALLIANCE report is based on interviews with Dr Elaine Webster, Dr Leah Macaden (project’s Principal Investigator), and two student nurses. The Dignispace resource is open access, and will be formally launched later this year.

A discussion of this and related research is also found in a lecture delivered by Dr Elaine Webster in December 2022, as part of the ALLIANCE’s Being Human Lecture series, ‘Dignity, human rights-based approaches, and human rights culture in Scotland’.