PARC: Containing Antimicrobial Resistance in the CF Clinic
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Pathways, Practices and Architectures: Containing Antimicrobial Resistance in the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic (PARC)
IRAS ID
236978
Contact name
Nik Brown
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of York
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
AH/R002037/1, Arts & Humanities Research Council
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is just one of many life-threatening conditions characterised by long-term antibiotic treatment giving rise to resistant cross-infection. Prevention increasingly depends on attempts to build containment and segregation (of people and pathogens) into the material design of the CF world. And yet, there are significant variations in the way CF clinics use the built environment to materially manage segregation and containment. Clinics therefore have much to learn from each other, and much to offer the wider clinical community in limiting antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
This study, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), compares different approaches to managing AMR in the design, practices and architectural layout of three CF clinics. We will explore how physical interaction, contact and exchanges are managed by mapping the differing 'real world' pathways and journeys through each clinic; and make visible the different and sometimes competing AMR design priorities of key stakeholders (e.g. people with CF, clinicians, designers, hygiene personnel).
Our project involves an innovative combination of visual and qualitative research methods. We will use the architectural layout plans of each clinic as a focus for interviews with participants. Our interviews will draw on the skills of the project's graphic artist who specialises in fieldwork illustration to visually record real world experiences and journeys. We will also be undertaking 'walking interviews', placing our respondents within the flow of their routines and using photography to chronicle risky spaces and objects as potential sources of infection. The project has an observational component to document key sites of high risk within the clinics including waiting areas, corridors, washbasins and hand sanitisers. Visual, graphic and textual findings will be used in co-design workshops and enable our partner clinics and their users to explore scope for redesigning practice and repurposing clinical space to limit AMR and cross-infection.
REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SW/0009
Date of REC Opinion
21 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion