Improving Fundamental Care in Hospitals
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving Fundamental Care on Hospital Wards
IRAS ID
216598
Contact name
Lisette Schoonhoven
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 27 days
Research summary
Hospital patients receive care and support to meet personal care needs (taking on enough fluids, skin care, toileting, keeping active, stopping bedsores from developing and eating healthily). This is called ‘fundamental care’. Sometimes patients feel this care doesn’t take their needs into account and they don’t feel involved. When we asked a range of patients, carers and members of the public about fundamental care, they said that making it more personalised and involving patients was crucial. However research into making care more personalised shows patients can worry about seeming ‘difficult’ when asking for what they want.
We will use three things together that have worked separately in previous research to see if they can improve the personal care people receive in hospital:
• Training for teams of nurses on hospital wards
• A feedback card for patients to record what is important about their care
• A tool to help patients understand and choose the care that is best for them. We are focussing on bedsores as a proxy for meeting a range of fundamental care needs.To test what difference these ideas make to patient care in the hospital wards we will:
• ask patients and staff on the wards to complete surveys and participate in interviews,
• watch how staff support patients and take notes,
• collect documents like meeting notes and forms,
• use information already collected by the ward about patient care.
We will collect the following information before and after we use the new tools and way of working:
• quality of staff support for patients,
• whether care is thought to be personalised,
• patient and carer satisfaction with care, bedsore development, and development of other complications like falls and infections.
The results from this study will be used to help us plan a larger test of working in this way.REC name
London - Harrow Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0365
Date of REC Opinion
24 Apr 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion