Learn more about the impact of Healthy Conversation skills on practitioners and patients alike from our case studies.
Clare, New Mother
Clare really appreciated the extra support provided by the Healthy Conversation Skills (HCS) trained nurses during her first pregnancy. She enjoyed the conversations she had with the nurses who focused on the kind of pregnancy she wanted to have and how she might adapt her current activities to keep her healthy.
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“They said, ‘so what kind of stuff do you like doing exercise wise, and what kind of stuff are you able to do?’ … trying to help me think about what I do and what I should be doing.”
Comparing her experience of the HCS trained nurses with her experience of routine care, she said:
“They are a bit stretched and sometimes I felt that with my midwife… I felt sometimes that I wasn’t being told the whole story and things were sort of said in passing.”
She felt that her NHS midwife didn’t have the time to support her as she would have liked to be supported. Overall, she really enjoyed her experience with our HCS nurses.
“I couldn’t fault any of the nurses, it was all brilliant. I was really pleased with them.”
Becky, Mother of 2 (including newborn)
Becky also enjoyed the personalised focus of the interactions with the HCS nurses. She particularly appreciated that conversations continued over several appointments and nurses remembered what she’d said on previous occasions.
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“They asked me again when I said about something that I needed to do, and they asked how it was going. They kind of remembered some of the stuff I said at the beginning in earlier visits. So yeah. That was quite nice.”
She enjoyed the opportunity to reflect and think about her priorities during this pregnancy. She recognised what the nurses were able to do to support her plan her diet and physical activity.
“It made me think about it more. So that was useful. Yeah. Through the pregnancy I didn’t actually put on a huge amount of weight. I think maybe it did sink in.”
She compared this experience with the care she had received during her previous pregnancy.
“The other pregnancy, I don’t remember going into that much detail about specific things about eating. So yeah. That [HCS support] was definitely a bonus … they were the only nurses who said you know, ‘what are you eating?’ and you know we talked about things that I was eating too much of, the things I shouldn’t be eating and why I was doing that and how I could stop that.”
She commented on the fact that none of this extra attention took up much time.
“It’s just tagging that extra five minutes on the end, to kind of sit back and go, ‘how are you feeling, are you ok? How do you feel?’ That’s the bit that makes the difference I think. It doesn’t have to be long.”
Lauren, HCS trained Research Nurse
Lauren described her experience of using HCS to support pregnant women. She felt that the opportunity to explore women’s priorities for keeping healthy during pregnancy was valuable to women who appreciated being listened to.
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She remarked on the difference between this experience and that of being in routine care.
“I think that’s a really important side-effect, if you like, of healthy conversations… when she’s in a busy clinic in the NHS… she might not get such a chance to talk about herself.”
Lauren felt that the skills enabled her to explore the issues pertinent to each woman rather than to impose on her a health care agenda. She also appreciated how using HCS enhanced the relationship she had with pregnant women.
“Because they are just opening up and telling us what they feel about things… what their plans are. Very often, they just offer that information.”
Lauren was mindful of applying HCS in a way that would respect personal boundaries and allow the women to generate their own plans for keeping healthy in pregnancy.
“Sometimes I’d find myself thinking ‘gotta come out of this interview with some goals’. But actually, no. I’ve just got to listen to the woman and ask her questions and see what she comes up with.”
Lauren said that she found HCS to be valuable not only in her interactions with pregnant women, but translated to all her relationships in both her professional and personal life.
