Community hospital inpatient time-use, meaningful activity & recovery
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Time-use, meaningful activity and recovery. Is there an association for inpatients in a community hospital?
IRAS ID
294673
Contact name
Ruth J. Garner
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 30 days
Research summary
The researcher will be exploring how patients spend their time, what types of activities patients engage with, if any, during a waking day, and any meaning attached to these. This will be achieved through observation of patients carried out over two sessions for a total of 13 hours and interviews no longer than 30 minutes will be carried out with up to 12 inpatients from three community hospital wards in Leicestershire. The community hospitals comprise of adults, mostly older people requiring a medical step-down bed, rehabilitation or palliation.
Each of the three hospitals will be purposefully selected because of their employment of a meaningful activity coordinator (MAC). Meaningful activity coordinators are purposefully employed to offer inpatients activities to improve inpatient experience and wellbeing. One of the wards will have a MAC working during the time data is collected, the second hospital ward with a MAC not working during the time data is collected, and with the third ward who doesn’t have a MAC employed at all. Focus groups will also be carried out with staff members based on the three selected wards.
The experience of these activities and the meanings they may hold within the context of a hospital, whether that be altered or not, will provide valuable insight into the lived experience of how patients spend their time in a hospital setting. By meeting with staff members in a focus group it is hoped that staff perception of patient time use can also be obtained. Through this two-year study it is hoped that the outcomes inform service improvement, staff development and contributes to future decision-making in relation to patient experience, meaningful activity and optimising patient time-use whilst in hospital.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/PR/0379
Date of REC Opinion
6 Jul 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion