Frequent ED attenders with learning disabilities / autism
Research type
Research Study
Full title
How adults with learning disabilities and/or who are autistic experience hospital emergency departments and whether hearing this patient perspective may lead to a better understanding of their frequent attendance, An in-depth interpretative phenomenological analysis of patients' emic views.
IRAS ID
242423
Contact name
Mark Haydon-Laurelut
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Portsmouth
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 23 days
Research summary
How do adults with learning disabilities and/or who are autistic experience hospital emergency departments and will hearing this patient perspective lead to a better understanding of their frequent attendance? An in-depth interpretative phenomenological analysis of patients’ emic views.
Frequent attenders at emergency departments, also considered ‘inappropriate attenders’ (Murphy, 1997), are regarded as putting unnecessary pressure on an already overburdened area of healthcare. However, reasons behind frequent attendances have not been fully researched and there is scope to better understand this behaviour with in-depth analysis of the patient’s perspective. Presenting an emic view of how frequent visits are experienced by patients with learning disabilities and/or who are autistic and considering whether unmet needs are satisfied, or not, by attending emergency departments and interacting with the staff there, this study may discover some commonalities across patients’ experience that could inform practice.
A qualitative research design is employed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) methodological framework, particularly suited to gaining rich data from the personal experiences of participants.
Permission to access hospital data relating to frequent attenders at Emergency Departments has been sought from the Caldicott Guardian. Those who have a learning disability and/or who are autistic will be identified and form the participant pool.
Potential participants will be contacted by telephone by the researcher to explain the study verbally and in writing using ‘easy read’ materials, information set out using simple sentences supported by pictures. The participants’ capacity to consent to take part will be assessed under the Mental Capacity Act (2005) and only those deemed capacitous will be considered. Those agreeing to take part will be asked to sign a consent form, also presented in an ‘easy read’ format.
Semi-structured interviews lasting 60-90 minutes exploring the subjective experience of participants’ visits to the emergency departments and interactions with staff, will take place.
The researcher will transcribe data and analyse themes and interpretations using IPA.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SW/0289
Date of REC Opinion
22 Feb 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion