Dying of heart failure in hospital, carers perspective
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The experience of end-of-life care in hospital for older people with heart failure. The carers’ perspective
IRAS ID
171707
Contact name
Cathy Leyland
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
De Montfort University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 1 days
Research summary
This study aims to explore the end-of-life care experience of older people with advanced heart failure during their final admission and death in a busy, acute hospital using their bereaved informal carers as proxy informants of their experience.
People with advanced heart failure tend not to be in receipt of specialist palliative care support, and their experience to date has been given little attention in palliative care literature. More end-of-life care research is needed around non-cancer deaths and carers experience (Higginson et al, 2007), and heart failure patients' represent this group well.
Interpretive Phenomenology enquiry will be used for this study. I plan to interview bereaved informal carers around six months after the death of a older patients who had an ‘expected’ death in hospital with a primary diagnosis of advanced heart failure. Participants will have a single, audio taped interview and the interviews will be analysed and interpreted to identify specific themes that are common to the experience. From this, common end-of-life experiences that form the essence of the phenomenon of dying in an acute hospital ward will be identified and reflected upon.Please see attached document 'Definition of terms' which clarifies the meaning of specific words and phrases used within the context of this proposal.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0249
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jul 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion