Support Needs After Critical care (SNAC)

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Getting it Right: the continuing support and service needs of ICU survivors

• IRAS ID

  217186

• Contact name

  Brenda O'Neill

• Contact email

  b.oneill@ulster.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Ulster University

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 10 months, 0 days

• Research summary

  Once discharged from the ICU, the patient and their relatives can have problems as a result of their experiences. These can last for a long time, and can affect physical health, stress levels, relationships, and ability to return to work. There can also be financial consequences. If we knew about them, many of these issues could be addressed.

  Currently, we do not know which patients are likely to need services or follow-up care. There are some recent guideline documents which recommend that follow-up care services should be offered to survivors of ICU. However, we do not know if these services are available in the UK. Overall, it is difficult for us to know who to help, or how to help. A simple questionnaire called a "needs assessment questionnaire" could help us discover what services, follow-up care or support patients need. We need to develop this questionnaire. In a later study we will look more closely at what services are available.
  
  We will use a thorough research process to develop and test a needs assessment questionnaire so that can obtain the right sort of information. We are starting by exploring information that some ICU survivors have already shared with us. We are currently working with a group of ICU survivors, and a team of experienced researchers and health care workers to develop the questionnaire. In this project our draft needs assessment questionnaire will need to be tested with two hundred people across the UK who have been intensive care patients at some stage.

  Our overall goal is to provide a National guide for the delivery of care for survivors of critical illness their families/carers across the UK. The development and testing of our support needs questionnaire is an important first step so that later we can use it to reach this goal.

• REC name

  HSC REC A

• REC reference

  17/NI/0236

• Date of REC Opinion

  28 Dec 2017

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion