End of Life Care in Care Homes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Critical Realist Evaluation of End of Life Care in Care Homes.
IRAS ID
233729
Contact name
Adam Spacey
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bournemouth University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Variation in the care for dying people in care homes has been evidenced. For example, research has highlighted varying levels of; inappropriate hospital admissions; care planning; satisfaction of bereaved-relatives, and collaboration with external services. Despite significant research in the field, there is a lack of research exploring the delivery of end of life care incorporating the different social, organisational and economic contexts within which the current care home sector operates.
Therefore, this project will explore current approaches to end of life care in both nursing and residential homes. Additionally, the study sample will reflect the three organisational structures in English care homes namely single and corporate owned homes. In order to appropriately explore current approaches to end of life care the study population will consist of care home staff ranging from managers to care assistants; it will also include bereaved relatives. Data will be collected from these different care homes in a two-phase process. Phase-one will explore current approaches to end of life care in the different care home contexts by interviewing bereaved relatives and care home staff. The data from phase-one will be used to develop initial theories which express what should be done to enable appropriate end of life care in a manner which takes account of the different contexts in which data collection occurred.
Phase-two will present these initial theories to care home staff and bereaved relatives enabling them to refine the initial theories based on their experiences and the contexts data collection sites. This two phased design aims to produce refined and tested theories which will be used to develop interventions and procedural recommendations which aim to be transferable to the different contexts within the current care home sector. This process may help to support the rolling out of good practice across the sector.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/1828
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion