Optimising the implementation of ACP in Heart Failure
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Optimising the implementation of advance care planning in heart failure
IRAS ID
207451
Contact name
Markus Schichtel
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Nuffield Department of Primary Care
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 0 days
Research summary
Heart failure remains an unpredictable, progressive and incurable condition. Patients suffering from heart failure expect their clinicians to initiate conversations about end of life issues and their future care. This is a process also known as advance care planning. However, clinicians tend to avoid these discussions in practice. As a result patient care suffers. There is some evidence that advance care planning improves end of life care outcomes when using trained professionals. Yet advance care planning is very rarely undertaken. Interventions targeting healthcare professionals have been used to change clinicians’ pattern of practice. Therefore, we want to develop a complex intervention to optimise the implementation of advance care planning among clinicians who look after patients suffering from heart failure. As part of the intervention development, we intend to use focus groups with patients, carers and clinicians to explore in greater detail what intervention components may be effective and under what circumstances. Focus groups have been used in the past to develop interventions to change clinician behaviour. Our focus group study builds on findings from systematic literature reviews, meta-analyses and qualitative interviews with GPs and nurses.
Three to six focus groups with key stakeholders (patients, carers, and clinicians) are formed with a wider remit to further refine and evaluate the components and acceptability of our approach. As part of an iterative process, focus groups have been used in the development and testing of healthcare interventions in long-term conditions, heart failure being one of them.
The aim of our focus group questions will be to assess patients, carers and healthcare professionals’ perspectives on the content, context and mode of delivery of the intervention and to reduce issues surrounding its implementation in everyday practice to a minimum.REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SC/0300
Date of REC Opinion
11 Jul 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion