Patient and Carer experiences of support for discharge from hospital

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Experiences of Patients and Carers receiving Hospital Link Worker support for discharge from hospital: A qualitative interview study

  • IRAS ID

    344633

  • Contact name

    Geraldine Macdonald

  • Contact email

    Geraldine.macdonald@bristol.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Research and Enterprise Development, University of Bristol

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 0 months, 0 days

  • Research summary

    Older people who are medically fit for discharge sometimes can’t return home because it has not been possible to arrange the help and support they need. To improve this, the local Integrated Care Board has provided funding for Hospital Link Workers to work directly with those responsible for discharge planning, to ensure that people who are ready get the support they need to go home as soon as possible.
    In this study we want to find out how well these new arrangements are working.
    We will talk to up 30 people who have been discharged with the help of the ‘Link Workers’ to find out what they think about the scheme. We will ask them what the link workers helped them with, what worked well, what could be improved, and what their experiences were overall.

    We will also talk to up to 30 relatives or carers of people discharged from hospital. We will ask them for their views of the link worker scheme, how it helped their relatives, what worked well and what improvements they would like to see, if any.

    This will take about 20-30 minutes with each person. We will record what everyone tells us and turn recordings into a written record to see what ideas are common or different between people. We will summarise people’s views, experiences and ideas in a report which will describe how well the link workers are enabling people to go home. We will identify any problems that need to be solved, with recommendations that will help improve the work of the hospital link workers going forward.

  • REC name

    London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    24/LO/0569

  • Date of REC Opinion

    25 Sep 2024

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion