Communication Function and Strategies at the End of Life
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A pilot study to evaluate a method for capturing information about how people interact and communicate at the very end of their lives.
IRAS ID
320991
Contact name
Ollie Minton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University hospitals sussex
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 29 days
Research summary
We want to understand verbal and non-verbal communication in a small sample of hospital patients (n=10) who are under the care of the palliative care team to see if we can determine:
1) What communication strategies (e.g., vocalizing, gesturing, writing, digital devices, etc.) do people use?
2) What communication partners do they use those strategies with?
3) How do strategies and partners change until the point of death?
We will use a standardised checklist for families to to fill out 3-6 times during a hospital stay with a dying relative that is usually 5-10 days on average.
We will use results from this exploratory pilot to design a larger funded trial.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/YH/0241
Date of REC Opinion
18 Dec 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion