Hospital and Home: An ethnography of delayed discharge and AAL
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Hospital and Home: An ethnography of delayed discharge and exploration of technological solutions in the home
IRAS ID
266730
Contact name
Karen Hughes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
NHS Highland
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 16 days
Research summary
This project aims to discuss the problem of delayed medical discharge and explore the potential solutions that technology can offer in the home. Its aim is to understand the patient/tenant perspective with the intention of potentially informing clinical practice. It is an opportunity to look at what can be done to improve the patient/public experience of long-term health conditions and how technology can potentially help to keep people at home for longer, with fewer hospital visits. \nThis study involves qualitative interviews with adult patients who are currently or have remained in hospital despite being medically fit for discharge (delayed discharges) and their families. It also involves interviewing tenants living in homes which have been designed to improve health and wellbeing through the use of technology, as well as tenants who have requested this technology be retrofitted into their homes. \nClinicians and families will be interviewed when appropriate/consented to, to give a secondary perspective and to ensure that the patient/tenant has continued capacity. \nFieldwork will be conducted via Zoom videoconferencing software. The sites for this research will be Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, and the FitHome housing clusters in Alness, and the researchers home. Interviews will be conducted via Zoom, and only when patients/tenants are in the mental/physical position to do so and have expressed this. All findings will be anonymised as much as possible. \nInterviews will be in-depth and followed up over a period of three-six months where possible. They will involve the topics of wellbeing, identity and place/space, but will ultimately be subject led. \nFindings will then be compared to find themes and patterns and written into ethnographic text.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
20/IEC08/0031
Date of REC Opinion
15 Oct 2020
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion