Caring for Frail or Seriously Ill Older People on Acute Hospital Wards

Project Duration

June 2010 – June 2013

Funder

Alzheimer's Society

Project Staff

Dr Kristian Pollock (PI) ¹
Prof Davina Porock ^{1 & 2}
Prof Rowan Harwood ¹
Dr Glenys Caswell ¹

Staff Institutions

The University of Nottingham
University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA

Aims

To understand the factors and processes that affect the quality of professional care provided to individuals with dementia who are dying in hospital and their family caregivers.

To describe the process of recognising and acknowledging dying in persons with dementia
To explore communication patterns between and among health professionals, the dying person and key family caregivers about the recognition and acknowledgement of the dying person with dementia
To explore the experience of care of the dying with bereaved family caregivers
To compare the recognition and acknowledgement of dying and the care provided for older people with and without a diagnosis of dementia
To develop a teaching pack for staff and students caring for patients with dementia who are dying in the hospital and their families

Methods

The project is a qualitative mixed methods study. 245 hours of non-participant observation were carried out in naturally occurring situations on four wards recruited into the study. Interviews were conducted with 38 professionals working on the wards, and 13 family carers of 11 patients. In addition, health record analysis was carried out and 42 triangulated case studies have been constructed involving patients where data was available from a variety of sources.

Outcomes and Findings

The study is now complete.

Return to NCARE

Email the team

Publications

Caswell, G., Pollock, K., Harwood, R., Porock, D. 2015. Communication between family carers and health professionals about end-of-life care for older people in the acute hospital setting: a qualitative study. BMC Palliative Care 14(35).

Pollock, K., Caswell, G., Harwood, R., Porock, D. Caring for frail or seriously ill older people dying on acute hospital wards, BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, 4:1 A20.

The study has been completed and the final report submitted to the Alzheimer's Society. View the summary of findings (PDF).

Two e-learning resources (RLOs) have been developed from the study findings.

'Dying in Hospital' gives background and context to the research.

'Every Death is Different' explores the findings and issues arising from the study.

Study findings were presented as a poster at the 10th Palliative Care Congress in Harrogate, 2014 (PDF).