PhD Student

Course Start: October 2017
Supervisor: Professor David Hewson
Second Supervisor: Professor Gurch Randhawa

Thesis Title

The Evaluation of Healthcare Professionals’ views on Frailty Screening in Primary Care.

Abstract

There is an increasing population of older people worldwide, which is estimated to double from 962 million in 2017 to 2.1 billion by 2050 (United Nations, 2017). Frailty has emerged as one of the biggest health problems facing the older generation which is as a result of more than one part of the body losing its ability to respond to additional stressors, due to loss of functional reserves that leads into series of adverse outcomes, ranging from functional disability to death (Topinková, 2008). In primary care, the British Geriatric Society (BGS) recommends that various assessments are needed to identify frailty in these vulnerable adults. Recently, an electronic Frailty Index (eFI) has also been introduced into the National Health Service (NHS) after much validation to be highly predictive (Clegg et al., 2016). However, the major concern with these assessments despite proven effectiveness is the timing and other barriers including accessibility of adequate screening tool. Hence, making the process of adopting a screening programme for frailty as a routine practice quite difficult (Lacas and Rockwood, 2012).

This research seeks to evaluate the views of healthcare practitioners to determine the knowledge and attitude, adoption of current guidelines and the implementation challenges to frailty screening in primary care within the eastern region of England. This PhD study is being undertaken in partnership with the neighbouring Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (Bucks Health), which has partially funded this PhD. Bucks Health has been set a target by Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) to screen four people per day for frailty in acute setting. At present, it receives around 25-30 patients per day, with at least half being over 75 years.

Research Question

1. What is the knowledge and attitudes of healthcare professionals towards frailty screening in primary care?
2. What current guidelines of frailty screening exist in various primary care units?
3. What are the implementation challenges to screening for frailty in primary care setting?

Methods

To find a solution to the above questions, a systematic review that seeks to identify healthcare professionals’ knowledge and attitude to frailty screening with aims of highlighting the barriers and knowledge gaps to screening in primary setting will be carried out. Followed by a mapping study to detect what operates presently within the primary care units in terms of adopting current guidelines for screening. This then leads to a qualitative study that will explore more on the implementation challenges faced by the healthcare team involved in screening for frailty in primary care.

About Me

Ijeoma started her journey to becoming a nurse at Lagos State School of Nursing (Nigeria), where she graduated as a Registered Nurse in 2009. Afterwards, she gained work experience at a private firm for a year and then moved on to work with the Lagos State Health Service Commission as a Staff nurse for 3 years before promoted as a Nursing sister.

In quest for further knowledge, she obtained a BSc (Hons) in Nursing Studies at the University of Bedfordshire in 2016. She then moved on to getting her Masters at the same prestigious University where she graduated with Distinction in MSc Advanced Nursing Studies in 2017. Her Master’s dissertation focused on “The effect of fall prevention programmes on the prevention of falls in older adults in developed hospital settings: a systematic review”.

With a passion to provide care for the elderly, Ijeoma is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Bedfordshire.

Ijeoma is also an NMC Registered Adult Nurse and a full-time Nursing Lecturer at Coventry University.

Conference Presentation

Delivered a presentation on the research topic at the University Winter Research Conference in 2018.

Contact Information

E: ijeoma.okpechi@study.beds.ac.uk
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ijeoma-okpechi-5a308a109
Researchgate: www.researchgate.net/profile/Ijeoma_Okpechi