An educational programme for assessing risk in stroke patients’ homes.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of the acceptability of an educational virtual reality programme for assessing risk in stroke patients’ homes.
IRAS ID
127523
Contact name
Avril Drummond
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Research summary
Patients with a stroke are typically assessed prior to hospital discharge by a home visit with an occupational therapist. These visits are completed to examine the patients’ ability to perform activities of daily living, such as making hot drinks and washing, within their own home environment and to identify any safety issues such as trip hazards. However, home visits are costly and time consuming to complete, and there is little evidence to demonstrate their effectiveness as part of discharge planning after stroke.
Therefore the proposed research aims to investigate an alternative approach to usual home visit assessments by using a computer software package. We have already developed a virtual home environment for educational use with student occupational therapists, which has been configured to present challenges such as access/ layout difficulties and potential safety risks. There is now potential for this virtual home to be developed for occupational therapists to use clinically with patients after stroke. We therefore wish to;
1) Interview at least 16 clinical occupational therapists across two specialist stroke units about the acceptability of this approach and their views of how it should be developed for clinical use with patients after stroke.
2) Interview at least 8 patients with an acute stroke, and a further 6 stroke survivors within the community about their perceptions of the virtual home and acceptability of the approach.This research aims to provide the foundation to develop the clinical application of the tool, and explore its scope to help educate patients and their carers on the risks and issues of returning home following a stroke.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/EM/0241
Date of REC Opinion
10 Jun 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion