PhD Student

Course Start: March 2017
Supervisor: Professor Gurch Randhawa
Supervisor 2: Dr Erica Cook

Thesis Title

Children’s Palliative Care: parent and professional perspectives of unmet needs, access and expectations.

Abstract

Paediatric Palliative Care research is a very sparse area and further research is vital in order to improve palliative care for children. It has been highlighted that the views of patients and carers in this type of research are very valuable due to their unique view point. Previous research has focused on child and parent perspectives on ‘unmet’ needs of the families of those with a life-limiting illness. However, it fails to address the uniqueness of the children’s conditions, with children’s services having a large number of life-limiting illnesses to cater for, the trajectory of these illnesses, and their expectations. This research will explore whether needs are being met by the services provided and explore access issues from the perspective of parents. Taking into consideration the impact of differing illness trajectories and views of what they would expect to receive from a hospice service and how this compares to their actual experience as user of the service.

Aim

To explore the needs of children and their families using a Specialist Paediatric Palliative Care Service, to determine whether or not these needs are being met and how to improve these services and their access.

• Explore parents expectations of children’s hospice care prior to using the service and compare this to their given experiences of the hospice service, paying particular attention to the illness trajectory of their child.
• Explore both parent and hospice staff views on barriers to accessing the services.

Objectives

• Examine the current knowledge base of needs in PPC from the perspectives of children and their parents/carers, with life-limiting illnesses.
• To investigate parents expectations of hospice care prior to using the service and determine whether the expectations were met or changed after using the service.
• To investigate the whether or not the services provided by the hospice meet the needs of the families and what could be done to improve the quality of care provided.
• Explore from both parent and hospice staff views the barriers and issues surrounding access to the service and how this may be improved.

Contact Info

• E: georgina.constantinou@study.beds.ac.uk
• ResearchGate
• Twitter: @GeorgieC942