What is an expert patient and how to become one (5 ways)
Expert patients are defined as people living with a long-term health condition who are able to take more control over their health by understanding and managing their condition. This leads to an improved quality of life.
There is no badge you can get to become an expert patient. But these are the skills of an expert patient:
- Know a lot – about your disease
- Understand your drugs – in detail
- Know how to use the NHS – and social care services – for your disease – e.g make sure you are under the care of doctors and nurses with an interest on your disease, and they talk to each other. You need to do this to coordinate your care
Knowing how the NHS works, hugely helps communication between, for example, your GP and hospital consultant(s)
- Get involved with teaching – other people with the disease how to get better care – e.g. via a local charity, online group or hospital information days
- Keep up to date – using social media (especially Twitter) to keep up to date with advances in your disease.
More about expert patients here.
Summary
We have explained what is an expert patient and how to become one (5 ways). We hope it helps you become one.
Other resources
Here are other related articles.
How to live with a chronic illness
How to speak to patients with chronic conditions
Last Reviewed on 4 February 2024