A knowledge mobilisation case study in palliative and end of life care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Towards better quality end of life care for patients and families: using ‘circles of learning’ within NHS acute hospitals and voluntary-sector hospices to mobilise knowledge about patient-level outcome measures in palliative and end of life care.
IRAS ID
213888
Contact name
Marsha Dawkins
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
Over half a million people die each year in England and Wales. This number is set to steadily increase with an ageing population. But the care of people towards the end of their life is not always good. Findings from national surveys show that - for some people - care is poor, especially in hospitals. One of the main reasons for poor end-of-life care is that it has been difficult to measure the quality of care which health services provide at the end-of-life (not just the experience of care, but whether care is improving symptoms and addressing people's needs as it should).
Valid and reliable measures - which capture what matters most to patients and families - are available for use in clinical practice. Clinicians are using these, but find it difficult to act on this information in a systematic way to improve care. Managers have service-level outcomes data, but do not know how to use this to demonstrate effective service delivery, inform quality improvement or shape service innovations. The obstacles to the use of this knowledge need to be addressed.This study will support understanding of evidence about outcomes, and the best ways to use outcomes data in palliative and end of life care. It is especially valuable to provide the opportunity for collaborative working between academic and clinical practice, and the opportunity for development of mutual solutions across organisational boundaries. Healthcare professionals from four organisations will be recruited to participate in a collaborative learning approach called Circles of Learning to share their knowledge and experiences about using outcome measures and agree ways forward on how best to use the data to inform care, quality improvement and demonstrate service delivery. Lay members from participating sites will be invited to participate in the Circles of Learning if the clinical team are in agreement.REC name
London - West London & GTAC Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/HRA/6014
Date of REC Opinion
27 Jan 2017
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion