Faith Howard

Global populations are ageing, and older people with frailty will become one of the main recipients of palliative care in the coming decades which will have significant implications on how health systems provide end-of-life services. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and Patient experience measures (PREMs) are increasingly used within healthcare to help provide person-centred care, improve quality of care and measure the impact of services.  Studies have proved that within palliative care, PROMs are both beneficial to individuals and improve the quality of clinical practice.  Such measures within end-of-life care have, however, been predominately developed with patients with cancer.  It is not apparent the extent to which PROMs and PREMs address the expressed needs of older people with frailty, and their caregivers, or how they are used with this group towards the end of life. 

This doctorate study has been developed to evaluate the existing PROMs used to capture and measure what matters most to older people with advancing frailty, and to build consensus with  experts (professionals, those living with frailty and caregivers) on adapting a PROM/PREM to suit the needs of this group. 

Aims:

Understanding how the routine use of patient centred clinical tools capture and address the needs and priorities of older people with frailty toward the end of life.

Adapt a clinical tool to ensure that it captures and addresses the needs and priorities of this group.

Click here for a 3 minute video explaining the study