PREPARE: imPRoving End of life care Practice in stroke cARE, 1.0

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  PREPARE: imPRoving End of life care Practice in stroke cARE

• IRAS ID

  289430

• Contact name

  Clare Thetford

• Contact email

  cthetford@uclan.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Central Lancashire

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 0 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  21% of stroke patients die within 30 days of having their stroke. Stroke can make end-of-life care complex. Death after stroke may happen:
  • Suddenly and quickly
  • After gradually worsening health, or
  • After ups and downs in a person’s condition

  Staff may be unsure when to move from active treatment to end-of-life support. Complications after stroke, affecting speech, language and awareness, may make it difficult for patients and family to discuss end-of-life care. Additionally, staff may lack the skills and confidence for these discussions.

  There is little evidence to guide how stroke end-of-life care is provided. We will explore what challenges stroke creates, and how recent changes to general end-of-life care work with stroke patients. The project will investigate what patients, carers and staff think helps and hinders, and what they think people need and would prefer.

  We will:
  1. Review research on the signs someone is likely to die within 30 days following hospital admission with stroke.
  2. Review research about the needs of stroke patients and their families towards the end-of-life, and staff experiences of delivering care.
  3. Survey UK hospital stroke units on current end-of-life care.
  4. Explore healthcare professionals’ views and experiences of giving stroke end-of-life care, including decision-making and goal-setting.
  5. Talk with patients, families and clinical experts about the research findings to identify the things needed to develop a package of stroke end-of-life care and support and decide how best to measure the patient/carer experience of the care package.

  We aim to design and test the stroke end-of-life care and support package in a later, larger study. Our study Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group, including bereaved relatives and survivors of serious stroke, will continue to support us, to ensure the research is relevant, moral, successful and makes a difference.

• REC name

  North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  21/NW/0185

• Date of REC Opinion

  16 Aug 2021

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion