Research

Care for Older People - Postgraduate Research

This programme is concerned with improving quality of life and care for older people in a wide range of settings, including acute, primary care, and mental health NHS trusts, independent care homes and the domiciliary sector. Researchers work with and for older people, their relatives and health and social care staff to identify services in need of change. Change is achieved through role redesign and developing new ways of working. Findings are fed back to multiple stakeholders through the use of participatory methods in order to facilitate organisational, workforce and practice development. Research topics fall into three underpinning strands, concerned with acute, continuing and end-of-life care. A blend of social and psychodynamic approaches are used to provide a broader context for researching and developing services for older people.

A major component, the My Home Life programme (www.myhomelife.org.uk) is a UK-wide initiative aimed at promoting quality of life in care homes for older people, through relationship-centred and evidence-based practice. It is a collaborative scheme initiated by Help the Aged and National Care Forum (represents not-for-profit care homes) bringing together organizations, which reflect the interests of care home providers, commissioners, regulators, care home residents and relatives and those interested in education, research and practice development.

Another large project, The Dignity in Care Project is a joint venture between City University, Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust and Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust London.  The aim of this two-year action research project is to promote the concept and practice of relationship-centred dignified care.  Using transformational leadership, management and practice development skills and working in multidisciplinary teams, the researchers are working closely together with staff to lead, role model, facilitate and promote new ways of working within clinical settings.   In a smaller project funded by the Foundation of Nursing Studies, Using discovery interview technique to explore dignity in acute care for older people, nurses from Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are learning how to conduct discovery interviews with older people (including those with dementia) and relatives about their experiences of acute care with a view to using the stories told to support dignity in care.

The team is also leading Nursing care of older people in acute settings: updating SNMAC guidelines, a project that focuses on updating the 2001 national evidence-based Standing Nursing and Midwifery Advisory Committee guidelines.  The project involves the systematic review and synthesis of research that reports older people's and relatives' experiences of acute care.  The resulting guidelines will be distributed in the form of a pocket guide and CD with every copy of Nursing Standard and Nursing Older People, a projected readership of 300,000.

Other national and international work focuses on care for older people in receipt of emergency and acute care services (http://www.city.ac.uk/listeningmakessense); loneliness and frailty in the community; and end-of-life care for those who have decided not to have renal dialysis. 

The team hosts a number of International Visiting Professorships and honorary appointments and is collaborating on several international and national projects.  The work is additionally supported by a number of Lay Associates.

The Care for Older People team would particularly welcome applications which explore the following issues of interest to staff:

We are happy to discuss with your ideas for research. You may find it helpful to get a sense of what the Care for Older People team does by looking around this website, for instance at our publications. Then write or email to us with an outline of your idea(s) for research.

Please contact: