This Patient Experience and Feedback in Healthcare course is designed for people working in NHS and healthcare settings who need to understand how patients, carers and communities experience care. It explores why listening to people matters, how feedback can highlight strengths and concerns, and how staff and services can respond appropriately.
This free course covers patient experience, satisfaction and clinical outcomes, NHS feedback routes, the Friends and Family Test, PALS and complaints, inequalities in reported experience, inclusive feedback, CQC expectations, professional responsibilities and the practical use of feedback for service improvement. It also introduces involvement, engagement and co-production as ways of working more closely with patients, carers and communities.
Why Take This eLearning Course?
Patient experience provides valuable insight into communication, access, coordination, dignity, involvement and the way care is delivered. Understanding how to gather, interpret and respond to this information can help healthcare staff recognise concerns, identify missing voices and contribute to practical improvements.
This course will help you to:
- Understand the main elements that shape patient experience in NHS healthcare.
- Distinguish patient experience from satisfaction and clinical outcomes.
- Recognise the different routes people can use to provide feedback.
- Interpret Friends and Family Test information with appropriate caution.
- Identify barriers that may prevent people from sharing their experiences.
- Support more accessible and inclusive approaches to feedback.
- Understand how CQC considers people’s experiences of care.
- Recognise when feedback may indicate a concern requiring prompt escalation.
- Analyse feedback themes without relying on misleading averages or assumptions.
- Contribute to improvements, involvement and co-production within your role.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
- Define patient experience and describe its main components.
- Explain the differences between patient experience, satisfaction and clinical outcomes.
- Identify common sources of patient experience information in NHS services.
- Describe how the Friends and Family Test works and explain its limitations.
- Explain the roles of PALS, complaints and other feedback routes.
- Identify inequalities, barriers and missing voices within patient feedback.
- Describe ways to make feedback and involvement more inclusive.
- Explain current CQC terminology and how people’s experiences contribute to assessment.
- Identify meaningful feedback themes and outline a structured improvement process.
- Distinguish feedback, involvement, engagement and co-production.
Patient Experience and Feedback in Healthcare Course Outline
Module 1: Understanding Patient Experience
Learners will explore what patient experience means within NHS healthcare, including respect, communication, coordination, continuity, physical and emotional support, family involvement and access. The module distinguishes experience from satisfaction and clinical outcomes and considers evidence linking positive patient experience with aspects of safety and clinical effectiveness. Learners will also examine lessons from the Francis and Berwick reports, including the importance of listening to concerns, organisational learning, openness and involving patients and carers in improvement.
Module 2: Sources and Routes for Patient Feedback
Learners will examine the main sources used to understand patient experience, including the Friends and Family Test, national surveys, local questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, complaints, compliments, PALS and representative organisations. The module explains how the Friends and Family Test gathers ratings and comments, why participation is voluntary and how findings can be used alongside other evidence. It also considers limitations such as differences in collection methods, response levels and representativeness, and explains the distinct roles of PALS, formal complaints and other feedback routes.
Module 3: Inequalities and Inclusive Feedback
Learners will consider why overall experience results can conceal important differences between groups and how factors such as ethnicity, disability, deprivation and long-term conditions may affect reported experiences. The module examines practical and confidence-related barriers to giving feedback, including language, accessibility, digital exclusion and concerns about speaking up. Learners will explore inclusive approaches such as accessible formats, interpreting, multiple feedback channels, outreach and working with community organisations, as well as methods for identifying groups whose voices may be missing.
Module 4: Regulation, Professional Responsibilities and Escalation
Learners will examine how CQC uses people’s experiences as one category of evidence when assessing health and care services. The module explains current terminology, including the five key questions, quality statements and evidence categories, while distinguishing current approaches from older KLOE terminology. It also explores professional responsibilities for listening to people, communicating information appropriately, preserving safety, maintaining trust and working within organisational procedures. Learners will consider how to distinguish routine service feedback from information that may require prompt escalation because of safety, safeguarding or serious clinical concerns.
Module 5: Analysing Feedback and Supporting Improvement
Learners will develop an understanding of how numerical results, comments, complaints, compliments and conversations can be brought together to identify meaningful themes. The module highlights common interpretation errors, including relying too heavily on averages, making unfair comparisons, overlooking missing voices and selectively focusing on evidence that confirms existing assumptions. Learners will then follow a practical improvement process that moves from identifying an issue and triangulating evidence through to involving relevant people, introducing a realistic change and reviewing its effect. The importance of closing the feedback loop by sharing learning, explaining actions and continuing to monitor experience is also covered.
Module 6: Involvement, Engagement and Co-production
Learners will explore the differences between involvement, engagement and co-production and consider when each approach may be appropriate. The module explains key principles of NHS co-production, including equal partnership, shared influence and involving people early enough for lived experience to shape decisions. Learners will also examine inclusive involvement through accessible communication, community partnerships, targeted outreach and the participation of carers and people with relevant lived experience. Practical examples show how frontline staff, patient experience teams, managers and other healthcare roles can use patient experience learning to support service improvement.
Target Audience
This course is suitable for:
- NHS staff working in patient-facing or service-support roles.
- Nurses, midwives, nursing associates and other healthcare professionals.
- Managers, team leaders and service improvement staff.
- PALS, patient experience and complaints teams.
- Staff involved in quality, governance or service review.
- People involved in patient, carer or community engagement within healthcare services.
No previous specialist knowledge is required.
FAQ
Who is this course suitable for?
This course is suitable for healthcare staff who need to understand patient experience, feedback and involvement within NHS services. It may be particularly useful for frontline staff, managers, patient experience teams, PALS staff and people involved in quality or service improvement.
Do I need any previous experience?
No previous specialist knowledge is required. The course introduces the main concepts and explains how they apply across different healthcare roles and settings.
What will I learn on this patient experience and feedback course?
You will learn what patient experience means, how it differs from satisfaction and clinical outcomes, where feedback comes from, how to interpret it appropriately and how it can support improvement. The course also covers inequalities, inclusive feedback, CQC terminology, escalation, involvement and co-production.
Will this course help with day-to-day practice?
Yes. The course supports staff in recognising useful feedback, listening appropriately, identifying recurring concerns, considering whose voices may be missing and sharing or escalating information through suitable local routes.
Does the course cover practical skills?
The course focuses on practical knowledge and approaches that can be applied in healthcare settings. This includes identifying feedback themes, choosing appropriate feedback routes, improving inclusion, recognising risks and following a structured process for turning feedback into improvement.
Does it cover professional and organisational responsibilities?
Yes. The course considers professional responsibilities for listening, communicating information, preserving safety, maintaining confidentiality and working within role boundaries and organisational procedures. It also explains when feedback may indicate a safeguarding, safety or serious clinical concern requiring prompt escalation.
How long does the course take?
The course is self-paced and usually takes around 1 hour to complete.
Will I receive a certificate?
Yes. A certificate is issued after successful completion.
Understanding patient experience helps healthcare services move beyond collecting feedback towards meaningful listening, learning and improvement. This course provides a clear foundation for recognising different forms of feedback, interpreting them responsibly and contributing to more inclusive and responsive healthcare services.
Enrol now to build your understanding of patient experience and feedback in healthcare.
