Patient and family views of medication management post-critical care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patient and family views of medication management after a critical care episode
IRAS ID
317565
Contact name
Richard Bourne
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 29 days
Research summary
Understanding patient and family views of medication management after a critical care episode.
When caring for a very sick patient in a Critical Care Unit, we often need to make changes to the medicines the patient was taking before coming to Critical Care, and start many new medicines.
When the patient is then well enough to go to a hospital ward, the patient should only continue on the medicines they still need, and restarts their other medicines when safe to do so. There are no national guides or standards of how this should be done for critical care patients. So, the quality of how medicines are reviewed can vary greatly, increasing the chances of patients having problems with their medicines.
We previously found a lack of engagement and involvement of patients and families in decisions about medicines. This may mean patients, and families, may be less able to contribute to their care and have more medication problems. We are conducting this study to understand the views of patients and family members on their medication knowledge, understanding, and satisfaction on transfer from critical care to a hospital ward. This will guide us on how best to include patient views.
We will do this in two stages. Firstly, we will interview patients, and family members of patients, from a single critical care unit for their views and experiences on their medication management involvement, communication, understanding and decision making related to medication. Interviews will focus on the transfer from critical care to the hospital ward and last about 20 minutes. Secondly, we will use short questionnaires (approximately 8 minutes to complete) to learn more about patients, and family members of patients, knowledge, views and experiences about their medication management engagement when transferring from critical care to a hospital ward in routine practice.Summary of study results:
We listened to the views of 27 critical care patient and family members about their engagement about their medication soon after transfer to a hospital ward at a single NHS Trust. Patients and family members want to be engaged about their medication after a critical care episode. When patients are critically ill, family members often take more responsibility for their medication and this changes back to the patient as they recover. There is a high degree of trust placed by patients and family members in healthcare professionals during a period of critical illness. Patients and family members want information to be provided in verbal and written forms. The timing and level of information needs to be tailored to the patient and family member depending on where they are in their recovery and their baseline understanding of their medication. The quality of information provided about their medication affects patient and family members feeling of care satisfaction.
REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/LO/0582
Date of REC Opinion
23 Sep 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion