Care homes fulfil an essential role in supporting older people, with over 400,000 residents currently in the UK. As the population ages, demand for care home services is likely to rise, with individuals living for longer and with increasingly complex needs. Nurses play a pivotal role in this environment, not only in delivering care but also in guiding the research that informs how care is provided. This research needs to focus on what matters most to residents and the people who support them.
Care home research has many stakeholders, including residents, their families and friends, care home staff and managers, health care professionals and many more. Ensuring that research is funded and completed with an appreciation of stakeholders' priorities is not only beneficial from an ethical point of view (particularly where research funding is derived from taxpayers' contributions) but is also practical. Residents and the people directly supporting them have valuable insights into where research could make the biggest impact from their own knowledge and experiences. They can not only highlight which problems are the most urgent to address, but also areas which are already working well and may be less of a priority.
The Care Home Priorities project hopes to bring together the views of as many people as possible to develop a list of priorities for future care home research – priorities that reflect the real-world needs and experiences of those on the front lines of care.
As nurses, your insights are critical to this project. Whether you work in a care home, support care home residents in other settings, or are a student nurse, your experience and perspective are invaluable. You may also have personal experience of friends or family members living in care homes that you would like to draw upon when considering your response.
Do you have any ideas about what care home research should focus on? Your thoughts would be very welcome. Getting involved is easy:
- Share your thoughts: If you would like to feed back to us directly, please consider completing our online survey, which takes less than ten minutes: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/herts/care-home-priorities
- Spread the word: Consider sharing a message about our project on social media or via an email – we have made a promotions guide, which includes templates for messages that can be copied and pasted to save you time. You can access this on our website: Prioritising Research through Engagement with older Adult Care Homes (the PREACH project).
- Promote in your workplace: Consider putting up a poster or leaflets in your workplace to promote the project (also available via our website)
- Involving residents: If you would like to help residents get involved, we have developed activities that can be downloaded from our website (or sent to you in the post) to complete with residents to explore their priorities. These have been developed with care home Activity Providers to make sure residents less confident at accessing online platforms can still have their say.
If you do decide to get involved, thank you – we are very grateful for your time. Every response makes a difference and will be carefully considered. If you would like to get involved or request a resident activity pack, please contact: carehomepriorities@herts.ac.uk
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