Long-term Conditions and Ageing research cluster

Research interests

Effective management of people with long-term conditions is a priority within health care and an ageing population. Our research activities are designed to develop and strengthen local, national and international collaborations enabling the delivery of high quality, values-based health and social care practice across the lifespan.

Our research focuses upon dementia care, frailty and multi-morbidity in older people, non-medical prescribing, self-management of long-term conditions, workforce preparation and models of care.

The mission of the Long-term Conditions and Ageing Cluster is to ensure provision of values-based care for service users by advancing knowledge in health and social care across the lifespan.

Research areas

Our research falls into five main areas:

• Dementia care
• Frailty and multimorbidity in older people
• Non-medical prescribing
• Self-management of long-term conditions
• Workforce preparation and models of care

Research methodologies

• Realist synthesis and evaluation
• Randomised controlled trials
• Intervention studies
• Participatory research
• Ethnography
• Grounded theory
• Phenomenology
• Systematic review
• Delphi technique
• Mixed methods
• Longitudinal and cohort studies

Our studies

Some of our current studies include:

1. Cross-cultural perspectives on roles, responsibilities and future care for older adults.
2. Evaluation of the implementation of “Freedom to Speak up Local Guardians” in NHS Acute hospital trusts and Mental Health trusts in England
3. Evaluation of supplementary prescribing by dietitians and independent prescribing by therapeutic radiographers
4. Developing an innovative healthcare system for palliative care in Ethiopia: co-design and user testing of a mobile phone based remote monitoring system (E-PC)
5. Improving Early Detection of Infection in Nursing Home Residents - Implementing the Early Detection of Infection Scale (EDIS) in UK Nursing
6. TIHM for Dementia - UK RCT study, Technology Integrated Healthcare Management (TIHM) for Dementia
7. TiME Matters – study exploring design and acceptability of using a digital story-based communication system for care home settings
8. Binocular vision, visual function and pupil dynamics in people living with dementia
9. DAFNEplus: Developing and trialling the DAFNEplus (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) intervention.
10. BEAT Diabetes – An online, digital platforms, accessed through primary care, to encourage and support people with type 2 diabetes to make positive lifestyle changes
11. Melting the Snowy White Peaks of the NHS: Overcoming barriers to career progression for BME nurses  
12. Generation Z’s Views of Care and Care Careers: An International Comparison
13. RIPE Project: Researching Interventions that Promote Ethics in Social Care
14. Does the current pre-registration nursing curricula meet the needs of newly qualified nurses who are recruited directly to community nursing?
15. Time for Dementia - involving health care professionals visiting people with dementia and their family
16. MDTea podcasts - Developing open access series of podcasts for all healthcare professionals working with older adults
17. CHHiP linkage - Extracting primary care records for patients enrolled to a RCT called CHHiP to investigate the effect of comorbidity on recovery from cancer and its treatment
18. Ethnic differences in type 2 diabetes medication adherence
19. Story-telling and occupational wellbeing in health-care: a process evaluation of Schwartz Centre Rounds® using an interactional framework
20. What do patients want from online access to their primary care record? A qualitative investigation into patients’ reported needs and expectations regarding online access
21. Sleep, shifts and napping: the implications of shift working on nurses' wellbeing and on the quality and safety of patient care
22. Developing Wellbeing Online - online platform for digital mental health and wellbeing interventions for University of Surrey students and staff

PhD studies:

1. Karen Cook: Developing undergraduate curricula to facilitate nurses’ ability to support self-management amongst people with long term conditions (Supervisors: Dr Debbie Cooke, Dr Nicola Carey)
2. Judith Edwards – The role of medicines management and non-medical prescribing in implementation of the paramedic advanced practitioner role. (Supervisors: Dr Nicola Carey, Prof Melaine Coward. Co-supervisor: Mr Andy Collen)
3. Olivia Luijnenburg: ETHoS Project: The Ethical Implications of 'Spirituality' in Residential Care for Older People. (Supervisors: Professor Ann Gallagher, Dr Freda Mold)

Areas of interest for doctoral study

The Long-term Conditions and Ageing cluster welcomes approaches from people wishing to undertake PhD study here with us. We particularly welcome enquiries in the following areas:

• Frailty and care homes- admissions avoidance, recognizing deteriorating patients
• Implementation and evaluation of non-medical prescribing, medicines optimisation
• Workforce development: extended roles, advanced clinical practice
• Self-management of long-term conditions
• Learning Disabilities
• Quality improvement

Please contact Freda Mold (Freda.mold@surrey.ac.uk) and Debbie Cooke (d.cooke@surrey.ac.uk) our Health Sciences, Postgraduate Research Directors if you are considering PhD study.