Serious Illness Care Programme UK: National Implementation Programme
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Serious Illness Care Programme UK: National Implementation Programme
IRAS ID
288487
Contact name
Alison Coackley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
In order to deliver high quality healthcare that is effective, safe and ‘person centred', health care services must actively involve patients, and their families, in decisions about their care. In North America, the Serious Illness Care Programme (the Programme) has been devised to improve communication between clinicians and adult patients with a serious illness, to ensure care provided is more ‘person centred’. The Programme combines education and training for clinicians in communication skills, and specifically in the implementation and use of a Serious Illness Conversation Guide. This guide includes prompts to help clinicians to have important conversations with patients who are nearing the end of life, covering issues such as: illness understanding, information preferences, prognosis, goals and values, fears and worries, priorities for future health care, and family involvement.
NHS England provided funding to adapt the Programme for use in the UK, and implement it within 3 NHS sites. Two research studies were undertaken. One specifically to adapt the Serious Illness Conversation Guide prior to implementation, and another to assess the feasibility of implementation following adaptation of the UK Programme.
This project represents further, ongoing research and evaluation of the use of the Serious Illness Care Programme UK, at multiple implementation sites across the UK.
The methods used will evaluate the use and experience of the Serious Illness Care Programme UK, as well as the impact of the conversation on quality of life and quality of communication. The research/evaluation will assess use of the Serious Illness Care Programme on two levels:
• Organisational Level: Implementation and service improvement metrics to track use of the Programme within the organisation, including ‘reach’ metrics and ‘service flow’ data.
• Individual Level (patients and clinicians): use and experience of the Programme in practice, including acceptability:
- Questionnaire completion
- Qualitative interviews/focus groupsREC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0421
Date of REC Opinion
1 Dec 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion