Approach for participatory Delphi method for structuring voices, population empowerment and research training

Abstract

A Delphi panel is a methodology used to generate consensus among experts. The development of a participatory Delphi approach consists of including the research population in the design and conduct of the research. It involves panelists in the preparation of an open-ended questionnaire as well as in the responding process. The answers are organized, anonymized and redistributed to produce a synthesis, which becomes a potential consensus statement. This process takes place during a set number of rounds in which the synthesis of each question is analyzed and graded by the panelists. Finally, syntheses are classified as having a higher, medium or lower consensus. We created a ‘change-oriented’ Delphi panel in which health-related students are considered the expert population. In this study, we propose a methodology to collect and analyze health-related students' views on education, demonstrating the effectiveness of active student participation and the Delphi approach in designing educational curricula. • This research focuses on how to conduct a Delphi participatory panel in which health-related students contribute to the study design, data collection, and analysis, as well as serving as the expert panelists. • This highly replicable methodology could be applied in the development of education curricula. • Delphi participatory approaches offer a research introduction opportunity.

Keywords

• Participatory Delphi Method (PDM)